Man Engine

Cornishman Will Coleman is author, film maker, musician, educationalist and former director of Cornwall's renowned Kneehigh Theatre. He is also founder of Golden Tree Productions which promotes Conwall and its history. He is, too, an enthusiastic promoter of the Cornish language and has published a book about the Plen-a-Gwary, Cornwall's medieval amphitheatres. Also a talented engineer, in 2016 he and his team created Man Engine, a vast 33 foot high mechanical puppet of a Cornish Miner. This was first unveiled in Tavistock in 2016 and has since toured the country. We were fortunate enough to see Man Engine in early April 2018 on the Wadebrifge Showground. I say lucky but the weather was dreadful, the ground soggy and the site sufficiently uneven that a good view of the action was not always to be had. That didn't prevent us from enjoying Will's show. He is a great showman and entertaining raconteur. The original Man Engine was the device of ladders and platforms that transported miners as much as 1600 feet down mine shafts. The performance of Will Coleman's Man Engine was remarkable for such a giant robot. In adition, a young lad, perched precariously at the top of a 40 foot ladder, gave an inverted demonstration of the use of the ladders and platforms of the real-life Man Engine. It may have been wet and muddy on the Showground but it was well worth tolerating the conditions for Will Coleman's great show.

Will Coleman

Man Engine

Lad on Mine Ladder

Cornish