Ladders

The fixed ladderway climbed between working levels before mechanical winding or the man-engine made shaft travel faster than climbing.

Historical usage

Before steam winding and man-engines became widespread, a ladderway was the only way in or out of most mines for the men themselves (as distinct from ore or coal, which was often wound separately even in an otherwise ladder-only mine). Early ladderways were built entirely of timber; deeper and longer-lived mines later fitted iron or steel ladders and rungs where timber wore out too quickly under constant traffic. The physical toll of climbing was severe enough to shape mining history directly: before the man-engine was installed at Tresavean Mine, Gwennap, in 1842, it could take Cornish miners more than an hour just to climb down to the working level, on top of a full shift's labour once they got there. That toll is exactly what the man-engine (see Man-engine) was built to remove, and its rapid adoption across Cornwall's deep tin and copper mines through the rest of the 19th century reflects how urgently a mechanised alternative to ladder-climbing was wanted.

How it worked

A shaft's ladderway ran in short flights between sollars -- horizontal timber platforms set at intervals down the shaft -- rather than as one continuous run, so a climber always had a solid landing within reach rather than an unbroken drop. Successive flights were commonly staggered or offset from each other rather than stacked directly in line, limiting how far a slip on one ladder could carry a falling man.

Why it was used

A ladderway needed no power source and very little in the way of materials or skill to build, which made it the default means of shaft access for as long as a mine had no spare engine capacity to dedicate to man-riding.

Risks & limitations

Climbing hundreds of feet of ladder at the start and end of every shift was exhausting, and a slip caused by fatigue was a real and recurring cause of death and injury -- contemporary accounts held that riding a man-engine, dangerous as it also was, was still safer in practice than the fall risk of climbing a long ladder while tired.

Related terminology

Man-engine

Mines associated with this term

Included only where MineArchive's own research gives a reasonable evidential basis — not every mine where this might plausibly apply.

• Upton Pyne Manganese Mine — Devon (well documented example)
  Named twice in this record, first in the history: “…this one. The mine was small and simple: an open working reached by ladders, dug with picks and shovels, its ore hauled out by horse and cart.…”
• Kings Dyke and Must Farm Clay Pits — Cambridgeshire (well documented example)
  Named twice in this record, first in the history: “…began in the 1920s: at first entirely by hand, with men digging from ladders using picks and shovels, the clay loaded into buckets on an aerial…”

Sources

1. (secondary) Man engine — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Man-engine or movable ladder adopted in Cornish mines — Alamy (historic print, contemporary caption)

Record created: 29 August 2026 · Last researched: 30 August 2026