![]() Old mine buildings at Wheal Busy | |
Location | |
---|---|
Location | Chacewater |
County | Cornwall |
Country | England |
Coordinates | 50°15′29″N5°10′26″W / 50.258°N 5.174°W |
Production | |
Products | Mainly copper, tin and arsenic |
History | |
Opened | 16th century |
Closed | 1920s |
Wheal Busy, sometimes called Great Wheal Busy and in its early years known as Chacewater Mine, was a metalliferous mine halfway between Redruth and Truro in the Gwennap mining area of Cornwall, England. During the 18th century the mine produced enormous amounts of copper ore and was very wealthy, but from the later 19th century onwards was not profitable. Today the site of the mine is part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The country rock at the mine was killas and the mine's main product was copper, though arsenic and tin were also produced. There are several lodes at the mine, some of which were crossed by an elvan dyke, 15 to 40 ft (12 m) wide which in places was highly mineralized. [1]
There were probably mine workings in the area of Wheal Busy since the 16th century, but it was not until the 1720s that the mine started to produce large amounts of copper ore. [2] The principal landowner was the Boscawen family. [3] The mine was located in what was known at the time as "the richest square mile on Earth". During its life it produced over 100,000 tons of copper ore, and 27,000 tons of arsenic. [4] The mine adopted the name of Wheal Busy after 1823. [5] At one time the mine also smelted the copper ore it produced. [6]
The mine suffered badly from underground water and in order to pump it out, one of the first Newcomen engines in Cornwall was installed by Joseph Hornblower in 1727. [7] In 1775 this was replaced by a 72-inch engine designed by John Smeaton which was not very effective and was rebuilt by James Watt in 1778, making it one of the first Watt steam engines in the county. [8] Also in 1778, the mine benefited from being connected to the Great County Adit, which also helped drainage. [4]
To celebrate a restarting of the mine in 1856, a "gargantuan feast" was held in the village of Chacewater. Watched by crowds, a thousand people marched through the village to the mine where the cornerstone for a large new engine house was laid. There was an excursion train on the West Cornwall Railway, a church service, a dinner was provided for 400 poor people, and at night there was a firework display. The feast itself took place in the marketplace and involved the roasting of a whole ox. [9] Although large quantities of copper and tin ore were produced in the following ten years, no overall profit was made and the adventurers lost more than £150,000 in the mine. [10]
In 1866 there was a wave of sabotage by some of the miners against the adventurers when in an attempt to reduce the mounting losses, a new mine captain imposed what amounted to a tax on their earnings. According to newspaper reports at the time the miners set about "attempting to blow up the boilers, laying trails of [gun]powder about the barracks, setting fire to the clothes in the dry, throwing large pieces of iron in the pumps, and other villainous acts." The mine closed down shortly afterwards. [11]
In the 1850s the water drawn from the mine was being used for the steam engines, but it was so corrosive that each year six of the twenty four boilers had to be renewed. It was not until 1862 that a supply of clean water was arranged to solve this problem. [12] The last significant production of copper ore from the mine was in 1866 (1,630 tons), though it sold small amounts (less than 100 tons) in each of the following three years. [13] In 1873, in the middle of the slump in copper prices, the mine was reopened and a new 90 inch pumping engine was purchased from Perran Foundry, despite there being many second-hand engines cheaply available at the time. Only seven months after it started work the engine was up for sale and the mine had closed without producing any ore at all. [14]
In around 1910 the mine installed a second-hand 85 inch pumping engine, [4] and to help with its production of arsenic, a Brunton calciner was built. [15] In the 1920s a set of Californian stamps was installed to rework the waste dumps for ore. [4] During the Second World War, 2,500 American GIs were billeted on the site and were said to have restarted the 85 inch pumping engine. [15]
Today, the site is part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site, lying within area A6i (The Gwennap-Chacewater Mining District). [16] [17] There are good remains of the Brunton calciner, [15] and the concrete bases of the Californian stamps are prominent. A Mineral Tramways cycle path passes the mine. [18]
The mine has been listed as a scheduled monument since 11 March 1974. [19] Many of the buildings on the mine property have been listed as Grade II buildings: the engine house and arsenic calciner on 21 November 1985, [20] [21] [22] the chapel for the mine on 14 April 1999, [23] and the mine's smithy building on 7 December 2004. [24] In 2011, it was determined that many of the mine's building were in need of restoration. Natural England's Higher Level Stewardship agreed to fund work on the engine house and associated buildings in 2014, [2] and the project was completed in the summer of 2015. [21] However, while the smithy building was also in need of work, the agency was not able to fund its restoration, but it was hoped there would be other means of funding the restoration of this building. [9]
Chacewater is a village and civil parish in Cornwall, England, UK. It is situated approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Redruth. The hamlets of Carnhot, Cox Hill, Creegbrawse, Hale Mills, Jolly's Bottom, Salem, Saveock, Scorrier, Todpool, Twelveheads and Wheal Busy are in the parish. The electoral ward is called Chacewater & Kenwyn. At the 2011 census a population of 3,870 was quoted.
Porthtowan is a small village in Cornwall, UK, which is a popular summer tourist destination. Porthtowan is on Cornwall's north Atlantic coast about 2 km (1.2 mi) west of St Agnes, 4 km (2.5 mi) north of Redruth, 10 km (6.2 mi) west of Truro and 15 km (9.3 mi) southwest of Newquay in the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape, a World Heritage Site.
Poldice mine is a former metalliferous mine located in Poldice Valley in southwest Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated near the hamlet of Todpool, between the villages of Twelveheads and St Day, three miles (5 km) east of Redruth. Since the early 2000’s the area has been adopted by the local mountain biking community known as the Dice Rollers. The area is now nationally famous as the best location to ride MTB in the south west attracting attention from youtube superstars such as Ben Deakin and his friend Matt Edgie. This is a popular location for mountain bicycling
Mining in Cornwall and Devon, in the southwest of Britain, is thought to have begun in the early-middle Bronze Age with the exploitation of cassiterite. Tin, and later copper, were the most commonly extracted metals. Some tin mining continued long after the mining of other metals had become unprofitable, but ended in the late 20th century. In 2021, it was announced that a new mine was extracting battery-grade lithium carbonate, more than 20 years after the closure of the last South Crofty tin mine in Cornwall in 1998.
Gwennap is a village and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is about five miles (8 km) southeast of Redruth. Hamlets of Burncoose, Comford, Coombe, Crofthandy, Cusgarne, Fernsplatt, Frogpool, Hick's Mill, Tresamble and United Downs lie in the parish, as does Little Beside country house.
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 UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Vilnius, July 2006. Following plans in 2011 to restart mining at South Crofty, and to build a supermarket at Hayle Harbour, the World Heritage Committee drafted a decision in 2014 to put the site on the List of World Heritage in Danger, but this was rejected at the 38th Committee Session at Doha, Qatar, in favour of a follow-up Reactive Monitoring Mission.
The Redruth and Chasewater Railway was an early mineral railway line in Cornwall, England, UK. It opened in 1825 and was built to convey the output from copper mines in the Gwennap area to wharves on Restronguet Creek around Devoran, and to bring in coal to fuel mine engines; later it carried timber for pit props and also house coal.
Hugh Boscawen, 1st Viscount Falmouth, was an English Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons for Cornish constituencies from 1702 until 1720 when he was raised to the peerage.
Wheal Peevor was a metalliferous mine located on North Downs about 1.5 miles north-east of Redruth, Cornwall, England. The first mining sett 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 which was around 100 metres deep here. The mine covered only 12 acres but had rich tin lodes. In addition to tin and copper, pyrite was also mined here between 1872 and 1887.
Wheal Gorland was a metalliferous mine located just to the north-east of the village of St Day, Cornwall, in England, United Kingdom. It was one of the most important Cornish mines of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, both for the quantity of ore it produced and for the wide variety of uncommon secondary copper minerals found there as a result of supergene enrichment. It is the type locality for the minerals chenevixite, clinoclase, cornwallite, kernowite and liroconite.
Wheal Vor was a metalliferous mine about 2 miles (3.2 km) north west of Helston and 1 mile (1.6 km) north of the village of Breage in the west of Cornwall, England, UK. It is considered to be part of the Mount's Bay mining district. Until the mid-19th century the mine was known for its willingness to try out new innovations. Although very rich in copper and tin ores, the mine never lived up to its expectations. During the later part of the 19th century it had several periods of closure, with an attempt to reopen it in the 1960s which was not successful mainly because of bureaucracy. Today the site is part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape.
East Pool mine, was a metalliferous mine in the Camborne and Redruth mining area, just east of the village of Pool in Cornwall. Worked from the early 18th century until 1945, first for copper and later tin, it was very profitable for much of its life. Today the site has two preserved beam engines and is part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site. It is owned by the National Trust.
Consolidated Mines, also known as Great Consolidated mine, but most commonly called Consols or Great Consols was a metalliferous mine about a mile ESE of the village of St Day, Cornwall, England. Mainly active during the first half of the 19th century, its mining sett was about 600 yards north–south; and 2,700 yards east–west, to the east of Carharrack. Although always much troubled by underground water, the mine was at times highly profitable, and it was the largest single producer of copper ore in Cornwall. Today the mine is part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site.
Wheal Coates is a former tin mine situated on the north coast of Cornwall, UK, on the cliff tops between Porthtowan and St Agnes. It is preserved and maintained by the National Trust.
Hugh Boscawen was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons on seven occasions between 1646 and 1701.
Charles Boscawen (1627–1689) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1654 and 1689.
Edward Boscawen was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1659 and 1685.
Devon Great Consols was a copper mine near Tavistock in Devon. The lease on the site was taken from the Duke of Bedford in 1844 by a group of investors. The 1,024 shares, sold at one pound each, were divided among the six men. Earlier attempts to mine this property had all ended in failure.
Basset Mines was a mining company formed in Cornwall, England, by the amalgamation of six copper and tin mining setts. It operated from 1896 until 1918, when it was closed due to a fall in the price of tin.
Killifreth Mine was a mine near Chacewater in Cornwall, England, producing at various periods copper, tin and arsenic. The engine house over Hawke's Shaft is a Grade II listed building; it has the tallest surviving chimney in Cornwall.