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The Levant mine is famous for its
undersea rich deposits of copper and tin which were pursued for more than a mile
out under the Atlantic ocean. It is also well known for its long working
life from the end of the eighteenth century to 1930. At the heart of its
remains, on the cliff top, still stands an engine house with its winding engine
intact. This beam winding engine (or whim to give it its Cornish term) is
the sole surviving piece of machinery of the mine.
 The winding engine stands in the
same house where it worked for 90 years, perched on the edge of the cliff,
making it the most westerly steam engine in the country. It is also Cornwall's
oldest. Built in 1840 by the West Country's foremost engine builder, Harvey and
Co. of Hayle, it is said to have been designed by Francis Michell, a member of a
distinguished Cornish engineering family.
The engine also has a national claim to
fame. It was Britain's first beam engine preserved on its working site by
private individuals. That was in 1935, five years after the mine closed,
and led to the formation of the Cornish Engine Preservation Society, now the
Trevithick Society. Today the engine is owned by the National Trust
having been handed over by the Society in 1967 along with other engines: Taylor's 90-inch
and Robinson's 80-inch pumps and Mitchell's 30-inch whim. Taylor's and
Mitchell's are both on display
at Pool.
 The engine house was restored by
the National Trust, whilst the engine itself was put back into running order by
a group of Trevithick Society members (known as the Greasy Gang) over the
years 1984 to 1992. In 1990 the National Trust and the Trevithick Society
jointly launched the Levant Beam Engine Appeal to raise a sum of £128,000
required to complete the restoration and to provide a means of steaming. Using
the funds obtained the National Trust rebuilt the ruined boiler house and
installed a generator of electricity and an oil-fired boiler. An old Cornish
boiler was obtained and installed in a non-working manner to show how steam was
raised before. The engine first ran again in steam in 1992, and since then it
has been steamed for several months each year for visitors to see how the engine
once looked and operated.
 The engine’s duty was to raise ore
from the deep levels via Skip Shaft, just north of the engine house. This shaft
is now marked by a small recent headgear aligned to an electric winder used when
the shaft was incorporated into Geevor mine. Skip Shaft was Levant's main
hauling shaft and was situated close to the cliff edge to minimise the
underground hauling distance. Even so this was considerable and ponies
were used, even an underground steam locomotive was tried.
Like many old Cornish shafts, Skip Shaft is crooked and of restricted size. It
is 278 fathoms (508 m) deep below adit level, the adit being just above high
water mark.
An electric light has now been installed in the shaft so that the changes made
in recent years by Geevor to make it into an access shaft may be seen.
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