Wheal Peevor was a metalliferous mine located on North Downs about 1.5 miles north-east of

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 ...

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. The first

mining sett Mining setts were a legal arrangement used historically in the counties of Devon and Cornwall in South West England to manage the exploitation of land for the extraction of tin. The term was also used on the Isle of Man.''Manx Sun'', Saturday, Fe ...

was granted here in around 1701 on land owned by the St Aubyn family. It was originally mined at shallow depths for copper, but when the price for that metal slumped after 1788, the mine was able to change to mining tin ore, which was found deeper down. In the late 18th century Wheal Peevor had the advantage of being drained by the

Great County Adit The Great County Adit, sometimes called the County Adit, or the Great Adit was a system of interconnected adits that helped drain water from the tin and copper mines in the Gwennap area of Cornwall, in the United Kingdom. Construction started in 1 ...

which was around 100 metres deep here. The mine covered only 12 acres (4.8 ha) but had rich tin lodes. In addition to tin and copper,

pyrite The mineral pyrite (), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Iron, FeSulfur, S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral. Pyrite's metallic Luster (mineralogy), lust ...

was also mined here between 1872 and 1887.

History

In 1790, the mine was considered part of Great North Downs mine; it was opened separately in 1872 as Wheal Peevor. By 1878 the mine was described as the ″surprise of Cornish mining″ because it was making a profit from tin while other Cornish mines were making a loss or closing. It was also described as a ″young mine″ indicating that it had recently re-opened. At that time the mine was employing 156 workers underground. There were 300 miners working at Wheal Peevor in 1880. The mine closed in 1889, almost 20 years after the price of tin was depressed due to the discovery of large, easily mined deposits in the Far East. Some exploratory work was undertaken on the site on several occasions in the 20th century. In 1911, a company acquired the mine property with the hope of being able to reopen operations. Their plan was to begin by working the surface ground and given satisfactory results, to then remove the water from the mine itself. After the mine was reopened, many of the original structures were altered to accommodate newer and larger equipment. Only a small amount of tin and

tungsten Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isolat ...

was produced and the mine was closed again in 1918. Later attempts to reopen the mine in 1938 and in the 1950s were also unsuccessful.

Present day

Since 2003 more than £800,000 has been spent on preserving the buildings on this derelict site, and it was opened to the public in January 2008. The site is unusual because it contains the remains of three engine houses: the largest engine, with a 72 inch cylinder, was used for pumping water out of the mine; the second, used for

winch A winch is a mechanical device that is used to pull in (wind up) or let out (wind out) or otherwise adjust the tension of a rope or wire rope (also called "cable" or "wire cable"). In its simplest form, it consists of a spool (or drum) attache ...

ing material in and out of its shaft was at the eastern side of the sett; and the third with a 32 inch engine operated 48 heads of

Californian stamps Californian is an adjective describing something related to the American state of California. It is also the demonym for a person from California. It may also refer to: Ships * ''Californian'' (schooner), the "Official Tall Ship Ambassador for ...

for crushing the ore. Wheal Peevor is now part of the Mineral Tramways Project and the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

. Several of the structures at Wheal Peevor became Grade II listed buildings on 12 September 1989: the stamps house, the pump house a house on the property north of the pump engine house and the Winding Engine House. A portion of the mine has been designated as a historic monument since 15 January 1974

History

Present day

Notes

References

Further reading