Mulberry Downs Quarry is a disused

opencast Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of mining ...

tin Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal. Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...

mine in

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, UK. Today the site is described as a 'chasm' being a steep or sheer-sided pit long and up to deep, and the quarry and immediate surroundings are heavily wooded. The quarry was designated as a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

(SSSI) in 1973 for its

geological Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Eart ...

interest.

History

The mine, known as Mulberry Hill Mine and locally just as Mulberry Mine has been producing tin since

Roman times In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...

. The tin deposit itself has been described as "best example of a stockwork tin ore deposit in Britain" The mine was part of the

Lanhydrock Lanhydrock ( kw, Lannhedrek, meaning "church enclosure of St Hydrock") is a civil parish centred on a country estate and mansion in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The parish lies south of the town of Bodmin and is bounded to the north by Bodmin par ...

estate, and there was sporadic mining between 1859 and 1916other sources give the year of closure as 1912 with a total of of

being produced in this period. Although the mine is opencast, two

adit An adit (from Latin ''aditus'', entrance) is an entrance to an underground mine which is horizontal or nearly horizontal, by which the mine can be entered, drained of water, ventilated, and minerals extracted at the lowest convenient level. Adits ...

s were run from the base of the quarry, however the current depth of the workings is consistent with the water table measured at nearby boreholes and as there is not any record of an engine house or pump at the mine it is unclear whether these were effective in increasing the depth that mining could take place.

Geology

The quarry runs almost directly north-south, and follows veins of

selenium Selenium is a chemical element with the symbol Se and atomic number 34. It is a nonmetal (more rarely considered a metalloid) with properties that are intermediate between the elements above and below in the periodic table, sulfur and tellurium, ...

and

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

that run through the middle

devonian The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, whe ...

bedrock. Modern boreholes taken in the area reveal

Cassiterite Cassiterite is a tin oxide mineral, SnO2. It is generally opaque, but it is translucent in thin crystals. Its luster and multiple crystal faces produce a desirable gem. Cassiterite was the chief tin ore throughout ancient history and remains t ...

immediately below the soil, with

manganese Manganese is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial alloy use ...

over below and immediately above an

-bearing layer. Below there are also ores of

arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, but ...

and

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

Geography

Tin is a necessary component of

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

, and export from Mulberry Mine to the Mediterranean could easily have been via

Tintagel Tintagel () or Trevena ( kw, Tre war Venydh, meaning ''Village on a Mountain'') is a civil parish and village situated on the Atlantic coast of Cornwall, England. The village and nearby Tintagel Castle are associated with the legends surroundin ...

or the much nearer settlement on

Stepper Point Stepper Point ( kw, Penn Stuppert) is a headland on the Atlantic coast in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is at . Stepper Point and Pentire Point stand at either side of the mouth of the River Camel; Stepper to the south-west, Penti ...

which was occupied in the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

and the Roman period. In 1834 the

Bodmin and Wadebridge Railway The Bodmin and Wadebridge Railway was a railway line opened in 1834 in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It linked the quays at Wadebridge with the town of Bodmin and also to quarries at Wenfordbridge.Sources use Wenfordbridge and Wenford Bridge ...

opened, with a branch line to

Ruthernbridge Ruthernbridge ( kw, Ponsrudhyn) is a village in the parish of Withiel in Cornwall, England, UK. History The village is centred around an early 15th-century bridge with two pointed arches which carries the road over the River Ruthern. The old we ...

provided to convey the output of the nearby mines, including Mulberry Mine, out to Wadebridge for transfer to sailing vessels for onward transport. The disused mine, located within the civil parish of

Lanivet Lanivet ( kw, Lanneves) is a village and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is situated approximately southwest of Bodmin, and before the Bodmin by-pass was built, the A30 road between London and Land's End passed t ...

, was originally notified as an SSSI in 1973.Ordnance Survey: Explorer map sheet 107 ''St Austell & Liskeard'' A second notification in 1985 increased the area slightly to The site was most recently surveyed in 2011 when the condition was described as favourable.

Notes

References

Citations

References

* Mines in Cornwall Quarries in Cornwall Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Cornwall Sites of Special Scientific Interest notified in 1973 1859 establishments in the United Kingdom Non-renewable resource companies established in 1859 Non-renewable resource companies disestablished in 1916 1916 disestablishments in the United Kingdom {{NorthCornwall-geo-stub