"The Largest Clay Mine In The World", tonight BBC2, 18.30 Hrs.

Edit: Think this is in the wrong place. 😞

South Crofty tomorrow I think by the description. (BBC2 1830)

(England, Northern Ireland, Wales only)
Michael Portillo takes to the tracks with a copy of George Bradshaw's Victorian Railway Guidebook. In a series of four epic journeys, he travels the length and breadth of the country to see how the railways changed us, and what of Bradshaw's Britain remains.

His journey takes him along the Brunel's Great Western Railway from Swindon to Penzance. This time, Michael searches for the lost church of St Piran,explores the last working tin mine in Cornwall and harvests oysters on the Helford River.

Its quite a good program only seen the last few episodes.

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"The Largest Clay Mine In The World", tonight BBC2, 18.30 Hrs.

Edit: Think this is in the wrong place. 😞

I've moved it! :flowers:

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"The Largest Clay Mine In The World", tonight BBC2, 18.30 Hrs.

Edit: Think this is in the wrong place. 😞

I've moved it! :flowers:

Ta. :flowers:
Anti Land Rover cannon looked impressive. 😉

On a serious note, a lot of that China Clay (and other nasties) used to be dumped on the Bwlch mountian north of Bridgend under the guise of land improvement. :curse:

Missed it, but guess it was Ivor taking someone around littlejohns pit....

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Missed it, but guess it was Ivor taking someone around littlejohns pit....

For a former MP who was Maggies sidekick Portillo has done a reasonable job with this series - albeit he claimed to have saved the Carlisle Settle railway by persauding her Maggieshit that the public protest should be listened to . Interesting fact BR claimed it would cost £10million to repair the Ribblehead viaduct and in fact cost £2.8m - strange coincidence that when I was wandering around the Collieries before they closed nearly all the managers stated that British Coal claimed they needed £10million to keep them open for further development

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00qbngz/Great_British_Railway_Journeys_Bugle_to_Mevagissey/ 

Cheers

Mike

looking forwards to tonights... Be interesting to see what the tin industry has to say...
😉

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intresting to see that this is one of the M.Ps that helped destroy the tin industry is now going to one of the mines they tryed to close!!!

caught up with this on iplayer, interesting stuff.

the 'call me Mike' act is a bit cringeworthy, though.

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yep... eurghh...

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intresting to see that this is one of the M.Ps that helped destroy the tin industry is now going to one of the mines they tryed to close!!!

If that's the case he must be older than he looks.

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Just to expand slightly on my previous post. Imageo recently added the Vulcan tin mine to the DB with an interesting link. Of course it disappears off the radar quicker than one can pour a single malt. I think the link is an interesting read not least because it has a certain resonance with the expansion of Crofty if you take in the wider picture, So I'll add the link here in case some may like to read it.http://www.dme.qld.gov.au/zone_files/QGMJ/qgmj_winter_tin_deposits_in_hodgkinson_province.pdf 

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Michael Portillo, born 1953, entered Parliament 1984, left 2005

the Vulcan link is interesting, also the production figures projected to yer'man Portillo. I hope it pays off. There are some high quality people down there making a serious effort to make the place a centre of excellence.

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And the tin industry was 'destroyed' when? Nought to do with MP.

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talking bout thatcher and that lot wouldnt help the cornish mines

I wouldn't get too excited about the ' Tory destruction' of the Cornish industry.

I was down there in the early to late 70s and my recollection is that Wheal Jane opened and closed twice in about ten years, and had - what - three different owners in that time?

Pendarves opened, changed hands and closed in the same time-frame. You don't have to look too far or too hard to find that it never really justified itself.

Mount Wellington was always inextricably linked to Wheal Jane because of the pumping issues.

Geevor soldiered on, making periodic attempts to rework old lodes either side ( aided by develoment grant money ) before finally closing in the early 90s, and it doesn't seem to be too widely disputed that the mine was pretty much exhausted of accessible reserves by then.

Cornish mining has a long history of boom-and-bust.

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As much as I hate what the Tories done to the country at that time (The full damage is yet to be seen), I don't think the Cornish mines (Crofty excepted) can blame them. Geeevor would have needed a huge capital injection to locate and develop new reserves, Wheal Jane was crippled by her own pumping costs. Where they stuffed crofty is they had given the mine a loan to modernise, massive amounts of infrastructure work in the mine was undertaken, one of the key elements being a pump store scheme, millions were spent constructing this, but the government witheld the last payment in 1991 which would have enabled the mine to fit it out and bring it into operation. The week following the governments decision to not pay, it was announced crofty and jane would close, obviously as things transpired crofty did not close at that time, but they did not gain the long term cost savings they would have if the various schemes were completed.

so... if South Crofty spent money on modernising their pumping layout in 1990-ish, is this something which will benefit the current operation?

You appear to be saying that the excavation and development work for a revised pumping scheme was done, but not the fitting out. Any pumps fitted at the time would presumably not be serviceable at this point, or is this not correct?

so, they have the chambers available but need pumps and ranges, which they would need anyway - is that right, or is it not compatible with the current and projected layout?

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The pumps na dequipment were all purchased but never installed, as following the decision not to provide the last payment, all non production work ceased and the mine never had the funds to install it again. In 1998 following closure the pumps were sold, it looked strange seeing 5 Bright Blue Mackley pumps leaving the mine in an unused condition, all the weir gates and channels were sold for scrap.

The 400fm Pumping chamber was excavated and it was impressive to get out of the cage into, it was an absolutely huge chamber with perfectly square sides and back with an overhead crane running its length, it would certainly make a good site for a permanent pumping chamber in the future.

so... if South Crofty spent money on modernising their pumping layout in 1990-ish, is this something which will benefit the current operation?

You appear to be saying that the excavation and development work for a revised pumping scheme was done, but not the fitting out. Any pumps fitted at the time would presumably not be serviceable at this point, or is this not correct?

so, they have the chambers available but need pumps and ranges, which they would need anyway - is that right, or is it not compatible with the current and projected layout?

I was never commenting on the Tin Mines which were subject to market fluctuations and private enterprise good or bad.

My gripe is the complete run down of the NCB - as an organisation it was a failure but it did mean we could not be held to ransom by international gas and coal supplies. We all know that maggie was determined to break the Industry and Union stranglehold, having endured the power cuts and strikes I guess we are all glad that is over but the manufactured closure of a thriving industry, with no energy policy having sold off the electricity companies to foreign companies and power is now generated by burning gas that is running out we are going to be stuffed becuase of a political vendetta. Not least we have lost some fantastic Industrial Archaeology along the way

Mike 😞