Information on Mineral Tramways Heritage Project and scenic sites on or near trails

Arsenic works at Poldice - "moon landscape" area with many walled shafts and an arsenic calciner dating from the mid 19th century. The chambers collected and condensed the arsenic fumes, and the crystals of arsenic were then gathered, bagged and sold to the Americas as an insecticide to control the cotton boll weevil, to New Zealand as an ingredient for sheep dip, and to Scandinavia to clarify glass.

Carn Brea - prominent granite hill with important archaeological remains from Neolithic to medieval times and great views over the former mining area. The summit (250 metres, 740 ft) is crowned by the imposing De Dunstanville Memorial (30 metres 98ft tall), built in1836 in memory of the district's leading mine owner, Sir Francis Basset of Tehidy (1757-1835), and Carn Brea Castle (his former hunting lodge, now a restaurant). In the 19th century the writer George Henwood spotted over 100 engine houses and 130 vessels at sea from here.

Carn Marth ("Carn of Horses"), near Lanner - area of great landscape value offering spectacular coast to coast views from its highest point (235 metres, 757 ft). Ancient barrows have been excavated and the "Swiss cheese" effect on the rock face was created by pneumatic drills when tested by the famous engineering company Holman Bros. Pennance quarry was opened in the 1880s to provide granite for Redruth's late-Victorian buildings. It has been landscaped to create an open air amphitheatre by the Carn Marth Trust. Tel 01209 820463 or visit the Carn Marth website:

http://www.carnmarth.org.uk/

Cook's Kitchen Mine - a very old mine, probably dating back to the 17th century and described in 1796 as "one of the most remarkable mines for copper perhaps in the world", although from the 1850s it used four steam engines and four water-wheels to produce mainly tin. It was also one of the deepest mines. The name is said to derive from a miner named Cook who described the lode he discovered as being as wide as his kitchen.

Dolcoath Mine - Cornwall's greatest and longest-lived mine, at the forefront of technical developments, and of copper production for much of the 18th century, with a workforce of over 1,300 in the 19th century. It housed one of the earliest Newcomen engines by 1758 and, working at 917 metres (3,030 feet), was the deepest metal mine in Britain. It finally closed in 1921.

Hawke's Shaft, Killifreth Mine - Killifreth worked at various times, for tin and copper, between 1826 and 1928. The engine house here has the tallest surviving stack in Cornwall. It was originally built in 1891 for an 80 inch engine, but was doubled in height in 1913 to create sufficient draught to operate the boilers for a new 85 inch engine. The shaft was linked to the County Adit, a deep drainage outlet constructed from 1748 which became 31 miles long and served over 60 mines.

Marriot's Shaft, South Wheal Frances, Basset Mines Ltd - a magnificent group of cathedral-like structures, awesome in terms of both their scale and impact. The remains include engine houses for pumping, winding, compressor and crusher engines and the miners' 'dry' (changing house). Constructed in 1899, the pumping engine house contained an inverted vertical beam engine (unique to Cornwall) with compound 40 inch and 80 inch cylinders. This shaft and Pascoe's shaft (which was near Treskillard) worked until the closure of Basset Mines Ltd 1918.

Portreath Harbour - developed as a mining port from 1760 when most of Cornwall's copper ore production was sent to Swansea for smelting. Much of the historic harbour remains - its 1800 and 1846 granite basins, jetties, Pilot's Lookout and cast iron capstans. (See The Portreath Branchline Trail).

Tehidy Country Park - 250 acre recreational country park, once part of the estate owned by the wealthy Bassett mining family who held the estate from around 1150. The Bassets resided here until 1916 but the grand house was largely destroyed by fire when it became the Cornwall Sanatorium for the treatment of Tuberculosis. In 1983 the grounds were purchased by Cornwall County Council and developed as a Country Park to provide over three miles of woodland trails, bridleways and a range of outdoor amenities, events and training. There are four access points to join the trail including North Cliff Car Park, and South Drive Car Park. 01872 222000 (See Tehidy Country Park).

Tuckingmill Valley Park - valley shaped by centuries of industrial activity including tin and copper mining, and now a thriving habitat for wildlife, pondlife and some rare plants. The chimney stack, scrubber building and collapsed flues on the small island in the centre of the Red River were associated with an arsenic treatment works built around 1905.

West Basset Stamps - one of the finest surviving 19th century dressing floors where ore was broken down by stamps (ore crushers), reduced to the consistency of a fine sand, treated on Frue vanners and buddles to concentrate the heavy tin particles from the  waste, and finally calcined to remove the traces of arsenic and other impurities prior to smelting. The stamps engine (1875) was made by the Tuckingmill Foundry. The remains show three different phases - settling and buddling (1875), an additional buddle floor (1892) and the installation of Frue vanners (1906). By the time it closed in 1918, around 11,500 tons of refined tin ore had been produced here by Basset Mines Ltd.

Wheal Basset - one of the most important mines of the Great Flat Lode, producing over 128,000 tons of copper ore from 1832-80. Later it also became a successful tin producer from the Flat Lode.  Unusually, the stamps engine house contained two separate beam engines, side by side. It stands above a prominent Frue vanner house (1908) and Brunton calciner (1897). In 1896 it amalgamated with its neighbour, South Wheal Frances, to form Basset Mines Ltd.

Cornish Mines & Engines, Pool, (National Trust) - two impressive Cornish Beam Engines and the story of steam in Cornish mining, at the Industrial Heritage Discovery Centre. 01209 315027

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/

The Cornwall Centre, Redruth - over 30,000 publications, 150,000 photographs, 50 Cornish newspaper files covering all aspects of Cornish history, geography, industry and art - and more. 01209 216760 (see Cornwall Centre):

http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=3743

Gwennap Pit - open air amphitheatre in which John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, preached 18 times between 1762 and 1789. Services still held. 01209 820013 or visit the Cornwall Guide website:

http://www.cornwalls.co.uk/Redruth/gwennap_pit.htm

King Edward Mine Museum, near Troon - oldest complete mine in Cornwall and formerly the training mine for the world famous Camborne School of Mines. Houses working machinery in a restored tin processing plant, guided tours and displays about the Mineral Tramways, mining & milling techniques, social history of mining and the Camborne School of Mines. 01209 614681 or visit the King Edward Mine website.  From the A30 take the Camborne / Pool A3047 turn and follow the brown signs. (Located on the Great Flat Lode Trail).

http://www.kingedwardmine.co.uk/

South Crofty Mine, Dudnance Lane, Pool, Redruth - offering the most extensive underground guided tour of a tin mine in the UK. 01209 715777 or visit the Western United Mines website:

http://www.westernunitedmines.com/home

Tolgus Tin, Cornish Goldsmiths, New Portreath Road, near Portreath (Cornish Gold site signed from the A30 near Redruth) - one of two remaining tin streaming works in Cornwall containing a range of machinery used to extract residue tin particles from the river that runs through what is now "Treasure Park" at Cornish Goldsmiths. 01209 218198:

http://www.treasureparks.com/

Heritage sites being conserved 2005-9:

Ale and Cakes, United Mines - Clifford Amalgamated engine house is one of the last surviving engine houses of United Mines, located above 80 miles of underground workings owned by one of the world's richest 19th century copper mines.

Betty Adit tin streaming works - the best preserved remains of one of 40 tailings processing works on the Red River, an amazingly productive area between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Surviving features include settling tanks and circular buddles that used water to concentrate the tin ore.

Cusvey, Consolidated Mines - two of the oldest surviving 19th century engine houses, later incorporated into the great group of Consolidated copper mines which in the 19th century included 21 engine houses and employed over 3,000 men, women and children.

Marshall's Shaft, South Condurrow Mine (later Grenville United Mines) - a rare, compact and well preserved example of pumping engine house and beam winding engine house dating from the late 19th century.

Penhallick Leats - part of a rare 17th century mine leat, together with a 20th century iron aqueduct which carried water to the mines north of the railway.

Thomas's Shaft, Basset Mines - remains of the oldest 19th century engine house (1854) on the Great Flat Lode, now with only its bob wall remaining but clearly revealing expert craftsmanship in its finely cut granite blocks.

Unity Wood Mine - prominent remains of Magor's pumping engine and a winding engine house with attached chimneys, used in the 19th century to extract copper. The structures are set in an important ancient woodland and mining landscape dating back to medieval tin working.

Wheal Fortune, Consolidated Mines - rare and important example of a 1760-1860 copper mining site unaltered since its closure. Although today no obvious structures remain beyond ground level, the site contains evidence of features shown on the 1821 mine plan.

Wheal Grenville - well preserved remains of the large late 19th century mine including pumping, winding and stamps engine houses and dressing floors. These structures used water to separate small pieces of ore from waste material and to concentrate crushed ore. Following Wheal Grenville's initial unsuccessful search for copper, the discovery and exploitation of the Great Flat Lode in the 1870's enabled it to became one of Cornwall's larger tin producers for the next 40 years. The New Stamps site will be conserved as part of the Project.

Wheal Peevor - only surviving example of the once typical three engine house arrangement, with substantial remains of a pumping engine house, winding engine house (complete with its capstan base) and a stamps engine house that drove a battery of stamps to crush the ore, together with dressing floors and ancillary structures.

Woolf's Shaft, Great Condurrow Mine - one of the few engine houses to be constructed in the early 20th century, made entirely of granite and visible from much of west Cornwall.

Information kindly provided by Cornwall Council