The School of Metalliferous Mining was formed in 1910 by the amalgamation of all the mining schools 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 ...

History

In the 19th century mining schools under government patronage were being established all across the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

. There were at the time three mining schools in Cornwall; at

Camborne Camborne ( kw, Kammbronn) is a town in Cornwall, England. The population at the 2011 Census was 20,845. The northern edge of the parish includes a section of the South West Coast Path, Hell's Mouth and Deadman's Cove. Camborne was formerl ...

Penzance Penzance ( ; kw, Pennsans) is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is about west-southwest of Plymouth and west-southwest of London. Situated ...

and

Redruth Redruth ( , kw, Resrudh) is a town and civil parishes in Cornwall, civil parish in Cornwall, England. The population of Redruth was 14,018 at the 2011 census. In the same year the population of the Camborne-Redruth urban area, which also inc ...

and it was felt that they should be combined. The newly amalgamated school would occupy the Camborne Mining School site and the Camborne Mining School brand be continued. Mr. W. Ficher Wilkinson was appointed as the first principal of the newly formed School of Metalliferous Mining. He was educated at Harrow and at the

Freiberg University of Mining and Technology The Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg (abbreviation: TU Bergakademie Freiberg, TUBAF) is a public university of technology with currently 3655 students in the city of Freiberg, Saxony, Germany. Its focus is on exploration, mining & ...

in Germany. The school later included Camborne in the title creating the Camborne School Of Metalliferous Mining, and in 1975 the school changed its name to

Camborne School of Mines The Camborne School of Mines ( kw, Scoll Balow Cambron), commonly abbreviated to CSM, was founded in 1888. Its research and teaching is related to the understanding and management of the Earth's natural processes, resources and the environment. ...

to better describe its academic activities.

Amalgamated mining schools

Redruth Mining School

The

School of Mines and Art School opened in 1882 or 83 and was located somewhere in Clinton Road to the east of the town. With the removal of mining education to Camborne the site became the Science and Art School and continued to teach art and science. A wing of the Redruth Mining School was a large mineral museum called the Robert Hunt Memorial Museum erected by

The Miners Association The Miners Association was founded in 1858 by Robert Hunt FRS, and the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society. The Association was formed to create a body that would discuss, develop, address the needs and represent the hard rock mining industry ...

of Devon and Cornwall to the memory of Robert Hunt FRS, keeper of the Mining Record Office in London. This museum remained open until 1950 when it closed and the specimens were taken to the Camborne School of Mines.

Camborne Mining School

The

campus of

, as it became known, was located just off Camborne Trelowarren Street in Trevu Road. In 1876 George Basset, the great mine entrepreneur, made a bequest to build a laboratory in Camborne, The Basset Building, for the use of the pupils of

. In 1882 the adjacent Camborne Science and Art School building opened. Until the amalgamation of the schools in 1910 Mr. J.J. Beringer had been principal for 28 years.

Penzance Mining School

The

Mining and Science School opened on 7 October 1890, at a cost for building and fittings of nearly £1,900. The school consisted of two floors, the ground floor housed the technical instruction hall and the lecture theatre and upstairs chemical lecture rooms, class rooms and a

laboratory A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratory services are provided in a variety of settings: physicia ...

filled with working benches for 24 students, a furnace room for

metallurgical Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...

work and a balance room.

Andrew Ketcham Barnett Andrew Ketcham Barnett (1852–1914) was a mineral collector and dealer in Penzance, Cornwall, in the United Kingdom. He was Principal of the Penzance School of Mines (now part of the Camborne School of Mines), lectured on mining, and helped to ...

was the first principal of the Mining and Science School at Penzance, which had been established due to his classes on mineralogy in 1873. Philip Burne Corin (1860-1933) was a master here from 1893 to 1910.

History

Amalgamated mining schools

Redruth Mining School

Camborne Mining School

Penzance Mining School

See also