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These Prominent engine houses beside the main road were built during the 1850s, but men were searching for tin here since the Middle Ages, first in streamworks, then in open pits. Not until the 1830's did Carn Galva become productive. From 1837 to 1839 it produced and sold 195 tons of black tin and employed 86 men, 2 women and 28 children! Yet by August 1840 the mine had closed - too late for one unfortunate miner, John Newton, who according to the Penzance Gazette of 20th May, was injured by explosives "and melancholy to relate, blew both his eyes out".

In 1851 the mine reopened, investing in new machinery and had a new workforce of 100 by 1864. Falling tin prices closed the mine again five years later, but in 1871 it reopened again for a brief period. Doomed from the start , fighting a losing battle against flooding shafts, the mine finally gave up the ghost in 1875.

The house in the foreground housed the pumping engine (this listing) and the the other housed a winding engine.

Both engine houses are now in the care of the National Trust.