Mining the Past

Cornwall's patchwork fields, villages and towns were among the most industrialised centres of Britain 150 years ago. In the area around Camborne historians have identified 800 mining engines which at various times occupied more than 500 structures in the tin and copper industry. They have also recorded 2,000 shafts: some hazardous.

Surviving tall chimneys and semi-derelict, roofless engine houses dot the landscape evoking romantic and ghostly images. More realistically they reveal the former dependence of a community on ores which in the century preceding 1850 made Cornwall the hard-rock mining capital of the world, but which since the 1860s has undergone a succession of crises.

Only one mine, South Crofty near Camborne, is expected to be operational next summer, saved by the quality of its ore. It is owned by Carnon, who in June will close its sister mine, Wheal Jane, between Truro and Falmouth. The price of tin is too low to be economic faced with foreign competition.