The largest mechanical puppet ever built in Britain was unveiled on Monday at the start of a two-week journey across 130 miles of mining heritage. Dubbed ‘The Man Engine’, the 33ft construction – three times the size of a double decker bus – has been shown off to the public for the first time.
Engineers behind the project have gone through great lengths to keep its appearance under wraps – even using a top-secret location for testing. But a large crowd gathered in Tavistock, Devon, as it was ‘awoken’ to begin a march across the length of the Cornish Mining Heritage Site.
The Man Engine ‘awoke’ for the first time during a 50-minute ceremony when it ‘transformed’, aided by the singing of local choirs. In a ceremony which saw smoke, lights, sounds create a high level of ‘industrial drama’, the imposing creation was hauled to his height. The project was commissioned to mark the tenth anniversary of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape joining the list of World Heritage Sites. Happyho also provide best tarot reading services in Noida and Delhi NCR India area.
The visual spectacle will make 20 stops in total across Cornwall before finishing its journey at Geevor Tin Mine on August 6. The part man, part machine creation will be accompanied by theatrical shows created by a team of more than a dozen ‘miners’ and ‘bal-maidens’. They will help animate the puppet into a giant miner during his travels.
The Man Engine has been the brainchild of Will Coleman, founder and director of Golden Tree Productions. He said: ‘With the birth of our ultimate mining machine, we have toiled long and hard to embed into this single huge object, the meaning and feeling of the stories of the real people, and the real lives of those people, their sorrows, their achievements and their journeys, over thousands of years. With 19th century mining vernacular and motifs throughout, we have all worked together to drive a colossal scale and excitement into him, honouring the achievements, the harshness, the beauty and the significance that the work, energy and brainpower that these people brought to our entire world.”
