Malcolm , Ian et al.
A little late info on the county adit (been busy)
If anyone is thinking of venturing into the CA, beware! It does flash flood. It's the only place in the whole county that I know suffers from this problem and the effects are rapid. When the access to the Wheal Fortune branch was open, I and a few friends pushed our way upstream to very close to the divide at Hayle Mills in the hope we may have found an entrance into Wheal Henry of which there has been very little written. the water, waist deep for the most part, rose to chin level in the space of fifteen minutes ( willy factor 9++) and we were forced to seek refuge in a small side excavation, probably once used for storing tools or materials etc. about an hour later the water had subsided enough to make our way back downstream to where we entered.
On stepping out it was totally dry and no sign of rain, but as we approached St.Day (for some single malt nerve tonic) we noticed they had had a heavy shower.
Allen B is a wealth of info on the CA and although it was indeed a feat in its day there is another adit system which may prove to be even larger. Again Allen is the man to ask, but the adit I refer to, drained a whole host of mines from Relubbus to Penberthy Croft and beyond. Much of this enormous system was the linking together of already existing drainage adits by driving a tunnel up from Relubbus Bridge (or close to) and deliberately targeting the tails of these extant adits. Allen did say to me some years ago that it could prove to be bigger than the CA. Might be worth giving him a tinkle to chase that one up.
The big grille on the portal is a very modern addition. In the late 70s / early 80s the adit became choked at a position underneath the old C&R railway between the bridge over the Carnon River and the road from Twelveheads to Bissoe.
Wheal Jane mine set to work digging a By-pass around the choke and the grille you see today covers the mouth. It was an interesting project in its self and intersected some old workings from Wheal Andrew, passing very close to the twin shafts. I'm pretty sure I've got some pics of it during construction. Now let me see .....when was that?.......I'm sure I left them somewhere here in 1987.......................!

Here are some before and after shots, and please, if anyone wishes to use these images, would they contact me first Thanks.


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Just came accross this. It's pretty rough, well... the spelling is anyway and I think the names were relayed to the draughtsman over a bad phone line or Single Sideband radio during a thunderstorm 😮
Regardless, it gives some idea as to the scale of this ambitious 18th century project.

🔗Personal-Album-342-Image-060[linkphoto]Personal-Album-342-Image-060[/linkphoto][/link]

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If http://www.aditnow.co.uk/documents/Foty-Slate-Mine/Rhydsarn-drainage-2.pdf  was done then perhaps the Oakley,Lord and Llechwedd and other mines would not have had to stop underground mining due to the cost and workload of pumping water from underground workings.

[tweak]Link sorted![/tweak]

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If .... Rhydsarn-drainage-2

was done then perhaps the Oakley,Lord and Llechwedd and other mines would not have had to stop underground mining due to the cost and workload of pumping water from underground workings.

Quite - the whole thing foundered in a row between Oakeley and Llechwedd as to whose bit would be done first and who would have a majority of shares in the tunnel company and therefore control it..... Thomas Jones, the "architect" of th tunnel scheme forever afterwards moaned that if it had been carried out the pumping would not have become a "millstone round our necks" a sentiment echoed by three generations of quarry managers.

Grahami

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Thanks for your interesting post Roy. Strangely only the other day I was wondering whether the adit was subject to quick flooding and your description of your hairy experience has answered that question. It doesn’t appear to have taken much either; just a normal heavy shower. Actually the adit is situated very near a corridor renowned for a build up of showers in the summer. It’s due to the shape of the peninsula. When you get a sea breeze situation on a hot summers day the breezes from the north and south coasts tend to meet in the middle (the A30 corridor) and often a line of heavy showers form. So you could pop down the adit on a nice summers day only to find by PM that… …well you know the rest.
Did have a chat with AB about the adit some time ago. As you correctly point out he is a wealth of knowledge. Funny thing was he ended by saying he hadn’t been down there recently and my best bet was to try one of the mine explorer organisations! Perhaps he was thinking of you. Didn’t mention the other adit but will ask next time I speak to him. At the moment I’m trying to work out all the mines that used the R & C. I’m working on the assumption that all the mines in SE Gwennap and those along the route to Wheal Basset would have done but it’s a bit of a nightmare.

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Isn't there a freight movements book or ledger at County archives or RIC that would mention mines using the C&R?
Even the accounts books would help. I know there are some records, but how complete I don't know.
Just a thought anyway and I'm sure you must have read the DB Barton book on the C&R, not that that really goes into too much detail about mines though.
One curiosity that has jibbed at me for years is the profile of Nangiles hill prior to the C&R being built.
It's my opinion that the Nangiles adit was opened up when the navigators excavated the track bed, and then stone lined the adit for strength, covering it over again when finished. the stone lining extends a good way inside from the portal and also supported the passing loop above.
So far I haven't found any evidence to coroborate this theory, but then I haven't looked into it too deeply either 😞
The adit, or Manway as it is known, is a truly remarkable piece of engineering and almost unique in Cornwall. The section beyond the stone work is a textbook example of an eighteenth century 'Coffin' level, and mostly hand picked through a soft elvan which has preserved the pick marks like the day they were produced; A real treat and a priceless piece of underground heritage.
Ooops! rambling again.................

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Don't know of any freight book but it's worth looking into. I've looked through the archives in the CRO (Barton put them there in 1978) but at the time I was looking for confirmation, or not, that the railway for a time went to the Basset Stamps. There is nothing to suggest it did , in fact the opposite, but Paul Richards has told me that it certainly did. Anyway, as you suggest, they don't really cover the mines. 'The History of Gwennap' throws up some information and I think it reasonable to assume the United and Consolidated mines would have used it. Probably the mines to the north and west would have used the poldice and Tresavean rails to reach Portreath.
Interesting theory about Nangiles-get weaving.

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Apart from the Great County Adit, there are others to the west, The Great Gwinear Deep is another very old and very extensive system that exists under Leedstown. This is shown on the symons maps of the area. It certainly would be a very interesting place to explore, air and water depending.

Not been in due to the amount of water, and the chance of making a large river very orange. 😞 I'm sure those at the EA would encourage exploration (not).

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