The Cornish practices of that period were to firstly install a beam engine, to serve the dual purpose of both the winding and pumping until sufficient mineral reserves were proven, which would then warrant a  larger and more dedicated winding engine.

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If a coal mine was relatively dry and shallow then the cost of the Pumps, along with the Pumping Rods and rising mains would outweigh doing the job of getting water out of the mine in another manner.

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The water could be removed with a bucket - like structure called a kibble designed to lift water instead of men and coal.  In some pits, men would manually use buckets to fill the kibble. These jobs were mostly done at night. One of the drawbacks of this system was that due to leakages the water caused damage to the ropes and guides in the shaft.