Construction started at Saltom in 1729 with a sea wall 6 Meters high by 100 Meters long.  The shaft started just 6 meters above sea level.  The small patch of land lay squeezed between the beach and the cliff.

At the same time workers started digging the shaft.  As the shaft got deeper, they had to solve the problem of how to get themselves and their materials up and down. A  horse-powered winding machine called a Gin was built to lower and raise the men, women, and children. 

Two horses were harnessed to a wooden drum and walked round in a circular enclosure. As they circled the rope wound and unwound from the drum and pulleys. Initially miners would place their feet in loops and travel up and down the shaft holding on to the ropes. Later these foot-loops were replaced with wicker baskets called 'Corves'.

People, materials and coal were winched up and down by horse power for nearly 90 years. Then they installed a steam engine.  It was a vertical engine because of the cramped site -  The ruins of the tall engine-house building are almost all that remains of Saltom’s workings today.

The remains of the circular Horse Gin can still be traced on the ground at Saltom.