South West Coast Path at Botallack - geograph

The Botallack Mine ( kw, Bostalek) is a former mine in Botallack in the west of

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a Historic counties of England, historic county and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people ...

, UK. Since 2006 it has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site –

Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape The Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape is a World Heritage Site which includes select mining landscapes in Cornwall and West Devon in the south west of England. The site was added to the World Heritage List during the 30th Session of the U ...

. The mine is within the

Aire Point to Carrick Du Aire Point to Carrick Du SSSI is a Site of Special Scientific Interest on the Penwith Peninsula, Cornwall, England. It is 5.98 square kilometres in extent, stretching from to . The site is designated both for its biological and its geological i ...

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 ...

(SSSI) and the

South West Coast Path The South West Coast Path is England's longest waymarked long-distance footpath and a National Trail. It stretches for , running from Minehead in Somerset, along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, to Poole Harbour in Dorset. Because it rises ...

passes along the cliff.

Location

The village of Botallack is on the

B3306 road The B3306, also known as the West Cornwall Coast Road, is a major road of southwestern Cornwall. It connects St Ives in the east to St Just in the west, and eventually joins the A30 road to the northeast of Sennen in the southwest of the Penwi ...

, in a former tin and copper mining area between the town of

St Just in Penwith St Just ( kw, Lan(n)ust), known as St Just in Penwith, is a town and civil parish in the Penwith district of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It lies along the B3306 road which connects St Ives to the A30 road. The parish encompasses th ...

and the village of

Pendeen Pendeen (from kw, Penn Din meaning "headland fort", previously known as kw, Boskaswal Wartha, meaning "Caswal's high dwelling") is a village and ecclesiastical parish on the Penwith peninsula in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is north-northe ...

History

Botallack was a submarine mine with tunnels extending under the sea, in places for half a mile. Over its recorded lifetime the mine produced around 14,500 tonnes of tin, 20,000 tonnes of

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 pink ...

, and 1,500 tonnes 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, b ...

. An estimated 1.5 million tonnes of

waste Waste (or wastes) are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use. A by-product, by contrast is a joint product of relatively minor economic value. A waste pr ...

would have been dug up with the minerals. It is unclear how far back mining activity goes in this location. Early records date from the 1500s. Some archaeological evidence points to mining here in the

Roman era 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 ...

or even as far back as 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 ...

. Henry Boynes was captain of the mine in the early 18th-century and opened a ″deep adit level,″ which was driven to the Corpus Christi lode in the higher mine. The first steam-engine was put to work at Carnyorth Moor (later part of the Botallack

sett A sett or set is a badger's den. It usually consists of a network of tunnels and numerous entrances. The largest setts are spacious enough to accommodate 15 or more animals with up to of tunnels and as many as 40 openings. Such elaborate setts ...

) in either 1795 or about 1810, depending on the source. In the first half of the 19th-century, the average price of Botallack tin was £64 4s a ton. The abolition of tin duty of 4s per 120 lbs to the

Duke of Cornwall Duke of Cornwall is a title in the Peerage of England, traditionally held by the eldest son of the reigning British monarch, previously the English monarch. The duchy of Cornwall was the first duchy created in England and was established by a r ...

in 1838 helped to keep the mine operating despite a decline in the price of tin to £45 per ton. In the 1860s a new diagonal shaft was dug. A visit by the

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. ...

and

Princess of Wales Princess of Wales (Welsh: ''Tywysoges Cymru'') is a courtesy title used since the 14th century by the wife of the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. The current title-holder is Catherine (née Middleton). The title was fi ...

in 1865, when they descended the shaft, created a mini-boom in tourism, causing the mine operators to charge visitors a guinea per person. An increasing supply of tin – initially from

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two regions: Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo's East Mal ...

Banka Island Bangka is an island lying east of Sumatra, Indonesia. It is administered under the province of the Bangka Belitung Islands, being one of its namesakes alongside the smaller island of Belitung across the Gaspar Strait. The 9th largest island in In ...

, and

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

, and in the 1870s onwards from Australia – along with a fall in demand for tinplate in the American market, caused the price of tin to fall, causing many Cornish mines to close. The managers decided in January 1883 to stop the Botallack and Crowns engines, because the number of men employed below ground was not sufficient to meet the costs of keeping the engines going. On 2 October 1883 the recently renewed setts, which extended over – comprising Wheal Cock, the Crowns, Carnyorth and Higher Mine – were put up for auction as a ″going concern.″ It included four pumping and three winding engines, two steam stamps, plus other appliances. At the auction it was stated that the mine ″... only needs from £20,000 to £25,000 to be put in good working order, ...″ There were no bids for the mine. The following shafts were working in 1884, * Botallack engine-shaft, deep and worked with a cylinder * Crowns engine-shaft, deep and worked with a cylinder * Wheal Cock engine-shaft, deep and worked with a cylinder * Carnyorth engine-shaft, deep and worked with a cylinder * Wheal Cock skip-shaft, deep * Botallack skip-shaft, deep * Carnyorth skip-shaft, deep * Wheal Hazzard skip-shaft, deep * Chy Cornish skip-shaft, deep * Pearce's skip-shaft, deep * Bullion skip-shaft, deep * Durloe skip-shaft, deep * Rodd's skip-shaft, deep * Boscawen diagonal-shaft, about long, perpendicular depth and under the sea * Approximately 10 other shafts varying in depth from a few fathoms to deep. Other engines, * Botallack stamping-engine, cylinder * Carnyorth stamping-engine, cylinder * Carn whim, cylinder * Davy's whim (Botallack), cylinder * Carnyorth, cylinder * saw-mill, cylinder * air-compressor, cylinder. A total of 265 workers were employed and the monthly wage was approximately £800 per month. The average monthly yield of the mine was about 19 tons of tin, 3 tons of copper and 4 tons of

. The mine closed in 1895 as a result of falling tin and copper prices. The mining developments around Botallack form part of the St Just mining district's successful inclusion in the

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 ...

, which was inscribed in July 2006.

Description

The engine houses in the Crowns section of Botallack Mine are set low down the cliffs north of Botallack. There are two engine houses and the remains of another pair on the cliff slopes above; the mine extends for about 400 metres out under the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

ocean; the deepest shaft is 250 fathoms (about 500 metres) below sea level. The workings of Botallack Mine extend inland as far as the St Just to St Ives road, and at times included Wheal Cock further to the north-east. The mine buildings on Botallack Cliffs are protected by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

. There are two arsenic works opposite the Botallack Mine count house. At the top of the cliffs there is also the remains of one of the mine's arsenic-refining works. The mineral Botallackite has its type locality here.

Popular Culture

The mine is the setting for R.M. Ballantyne's ''Deep Down''. The 1970s BBC television series ''

Poldark ''Poldark'' is a series of historical novels by Winston Graham, published from 1945 to 1953 and continued from 1973 to 2002. The first novel, '' Ross Poldark'', was named for the protagonist of the series. The novel series was adapted twice ...

'' was filmed partly in Botallack, using Manor Farm as Nampara. More recently, filming for the new ''Poldark'' series also took place here.

References

External links

* {{Cornwall, state=collapsed Arsenic mines in Cornwall Copper mines in Cornwall Geological type localities Grade II listed buildings in Cornwall Grade II listed industrial buildings Industrial archaeological sites in Cornwall National Trust properties in Cornwall St Just in Penwith Tin mines in Cornwall