Does anyone remember any workings/surfacebuildings that existed before the tip became bigtime?

I have a vague memory of some building remains etc.

Lozz.

I've always been fascinated with United and Consols, utterly amazing places which are in my mind, are amoung the jewels in the crown of cornish mining.

I gather it was pretty bleak before the tip, with walled around shafts and the odd base of a building. Poldory Engine house has been gone for a very long time (Photo in "The History of Gwennap") as had thingumy's 85" which was inside the entrance to the tip...This had been gone for a long time. There were some dressing floors and an arsenic stack which were buried a long time ago.

What is so odd is that despite the camborne area being pretty much documented daily, virtually nothing is recorded photographically with Consols or United. It must have been incredible to see when it was in full swing.

I gather that Wheal Jane went down Sampson's Shaft which is pretty much at the far side of the carpark where the generator gubbins reside. They also went down a shaft on mundic lode, which has a grille on it still. Teague's Openwork was at work in the 40s and they sank a shaft into some old workings and there would have been evidence of that. I gather that local explorers went in there, found wagons on tracks and then noted that the workings were being replenished with methane, to their amusement.

It's interesting to think that the tip doesn't have a liner. I gather there was a fair bit of tin present, but they had problems with milling it due to tungsten being present in some of it. I think they then continued in a small way at Whiteworks.

I find it odd how permission for a tip would be granted over a place where mining was recently taking place and had proven values (even though all the major copper lodes were totally stripped).

Jane obviously thought there was potential merit in it with their wheal maid decline project.

Thanks Stuey, I remember bits of floors and arsnic flues etc when I used to specimen hunting, as you say not a lot of historical photos, that place must have been buzzing back then. I remember saying to a few chums back then that it should have been saved but that's the way it was, now they can't get enough of it, heritage that is.
I used to live fairly close by years ago up near Cathederal Mine near Carn Marth. I new a chap back then that was prospecting on his own in the woods on the Beauchamp estate very close by the tip, he actually got permission.

Lozz.

Fascinating. That is Wheal Squire.

Oddly enough, some of the shafts have ladderways which may or may not be connected with Wheal Jane's poking around.

A shaft opened up there quite recently with quite a lot of stonework on one side. I think it's probably an angle-bob mechanism.

A couple of us poked around a few shafts in there, but were always wary of the air. I think Ting Tang had "Flat Lode" and "Tin Lode" which continued into Wheal Squire and it was probably something to do with those. Looking at the size and amount of shafts on them, they weren't major.

Squire woods almost has as many shafts as united did. The place is pickled. One fascinating thing is the avenue of monkey puzzle trees in the woods. I found some cables which looked mining related around there. Thankfully, he's got rid of the undergrowth as the rhodedendrons had gone utterly off the scale in there.

We tried getting as far up the united adit as we could and got under Ware's Scrapyard where there is a blocked adit shaft. The air in there was fine.

Having said, squire must have been a fair size, IIRC, Lean's Reporter quotes a 36" and a 60".

Edity Moan:- Cornwall Archaeological Unit have done a report on the arsenic works before it was obliterated. It's a fine report and one of their efforts which actually achieves something. Sadly, they are not involved in the vandalism/destruction/capping over at Hallenbeagle as we speak. It seems that if someone else is doing something with mine workings, they have to go to the nth degree to ensure environmental/historical considerations are made and all the relevant box tickers and bodies are dragged in at huge expense to record our history before it is wrecked, however if the CCC are involved, the rulebook appears to get chucked out of the window.

Yes, Squire rings a bell, as you say the woods are well holed, it's a long time since I poked around there, I remember years a go I lived at twelheads for a short while and used to drive up the mine valley as a short cut on the way to Crofty at 5.30 in the mornings. Happy days.

Lozz.

.......... I remember years a go I lived at twelheads for a short while and used to drive up the mine valley as a short cut on the way to Crofty at 5.30 in the mornings. Happy days.
Lozz.

So it was you that used to drive by our caravan! Mystery over! 😉

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.......... I remember years a go I lived at twelheads for a short while and used to drive up the mine valley as a short cut on the way to Crofty at 5.30 in the mornings. Happy days.
Lozz.

So it was you that used to drive by our caravan! Mystery over! ;D

Who me! it would have been around 1973.
It was just up from Twelveheads near Crosslanes, when quiet in the house you could hear the reports from Wheal Jane.

Lozz.

I visited the site in the early 1990s, when a large area had been scraped down to rock-head. The lode-exposures were superb with quartz-cassitterite veins running one way and cross-courses with banded chalcedony running at right angles, cutting and sometimes displacing the tin veins. Picked up what is easily my best cassitterite specimen, which was just sat there on the ground. It had several perfect crystals to over a centimetre on a thin bed of quartz crystals on killas. Showed it to a couple of mineral dealers while I was down there and was told it was a damn good contemporary find. Would have been great if the lode-exposures could have been at least partially preserved...

I visited the site in the early 1990s, when a large area had been scraped down to rock-head. The lode-exposures were superb with quartz-cassitterite veins running one way and cross-courses with banded chalcedony running at right angles, cutting and sometimes displacing the tin veins. Picked up what is easily my best cassitterite specimen, which was just sat there on the ground. It had several perfect crystals to over a centimetre on a thin bed of quartz crystals on killas. Showed it to a couple of mineral dealers while I was down there and was told it was a damn good contemporary find. Would have been great if the lode-exposures could have been at least partially preserved...

I remember seeing the structures too along with lots of other local rockhounds. The Cassiterite was exactly like the stuff from Whiteworks with a similar pale banded killas matrix the crystals usually bedded on a thin crust of quartz which had occasional intrusions of chlorite. In the harder parts of the lode it resembled the stuff from Droskyn Point Perranporth.

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.......... I remember years a go I lived at twelheads for a short while and used to drive up the mine valley as a short cut on the way to Crofty at 5.30 in the mornings. Happy days.
Lozz.

So it was you that used to drive by our caravan! Mystery over! ;D

Who me! it would have been around 1973.
It was just up from Twelveheads near Crosslanes, when quiet in the house you could hear the reports from Wheal Jane.

Lozz.

I visited the site in the early 1990s, when a large area had been scraped down to rock-head. The lode-exposures were superb with quartz-cassitterite veins running one way and cross-courses with banded chalcedony running at right angles, cutting and sometimes displacing the tin veins. Picked up what is easily my best cassitterite specimen, which was just sat there on the ground. It had several perfect crystals to over a centimetre on a thin bed of quartz crystals on killas. Showed it to a couple of mineral dealers while I was down there and was told it was a damn good contemporary find. Would have been great if the lode-exposures could have been at least partially preserved...

Me (and my wife to be) were down there from early 1976. We used to get Mt Wellington security passing by every hour or so in their Diesel Diahatsu 4x4s so we were used to the sound of them, but there was another vehicle that would pass by that we could never identify. Mind you at that time of the morning even the missus was hard to identify :lol:

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Found this the the Parish mag.

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Wal. I haven't seen you for ages. I hope you are well.

This belongs me onto the Carharrack book. It has a load of photos which are hugely interesting. Worth having if you haven't got a copy.

There is an interesting photo of the Coads/West Virgin site on the Carharrack website as well. It used to be a lot more mine like, and then someone drive a bulldozer around in there.

Hey ho Stu - very well thanks. Its been quiet recently.

We used to holiday at Presingoll Farm at St Agnes every year from the late 70s, and I used to drive down to United every morning at 06:00 to collect specimens. Then I used to drive back and have a "normal" day with the wife and young kids. Still have some magnificent green fluorite that I picked up one morning, and some good clear honey coloured quartz crystals.
Oh, how I miss those days

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