I've been poking around here in quite some detail and a conversation I had with one of the chaps promoted this thread.

A fair amount is recorded about what lies in Wheal Jane and Nangiles, but not the area in between. I've been trying to make sense of the 6" maps and it throws several questions up. I also haven't investigated the area between Modern Wheal Jane (for obvious reasons) and Nangiles to know whether the remains are obliterated or not.

Looking at the 6" map, it appears that the lode structure from Nangiles>>Jane is continuous. I assume that deep adit level continues right through the whole lot. (dines) I hear that Jane adit comes out in a different place which would suggest that it is a later addition (why?).

I've just had a peer at "Painting a mine with light", the very good book by John Peck, there is a small cross section which shows stoping above adit level at W Jane (which I would have expected) and a higher than adit level. This is interesting. One of the snags is that the modern jane workings buggered up quite a lot of the older stuff (but not all of it?)
I assume there are extensive workings above adit. I gather that both No2 and Clemows shaft (which are off the line of shafts from the old map) cut the lode at a deeper level. This also fits the rumour that there is nothing above water level anyway in these shafts. I'm wondering what else is on the site but has not been eclipsed. (NB:- I am not planning a stealth mission-just making sense of the maps)

Looking at the map, I assume that the Widden and W Jane workings are pretty much linked and if you could get into one, you could get into the other. There is a gap between there and nangiles, which I assume is the course (blocked?) of the old deep adit.

Any information on this connection and what is left would be of interest to me.

Having a quick look at Flashearth, it appears that Wheal Widden was obliterated by the tailings dam. Although there may be things off to the side.

Which leads me onto this:-

http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=50.233543&lon=-5.120031&z=19.3&r=0&src=msa 

Below the tailings dam, not on the strike of the main lode system, there are sporadic shafts. I haven't managed to look at these yet and sadly, Dines has nothing to say.

Again, the history of the workings of Jane seem to eclipse each other.

I had a poke around Basset Graze as Ham Jenks has written "Basset Graze" in huge letters on his map. It had to be quite extensive. All I found were some spoil heaps and a choked shaft......capped? I was wondering if this had an adit. Downstream is "Little Bread and Cheese Shaft" which has got me interesting. I think there might be stuff worth exploring down here.

It would be nice if we could make this into a decent knowledge sharing thread.

Take it away 🙂

The lode structure is continuous from East Wheal Jane on the North side of the Penzance to Paddington main line, right the way through to wheal Nelson on the other side of Camborne and I believe that the Great Flat Lode is a contiguous part of the same lode structure, along with some of it's 'outriders'.
the lode between Nangiles and Wheal Jane (aka old Wheal Jane)
has been worked since elizabethan times. Wheal Widden has the oldest articles of association in existence for a Cornish Mine, See Buckley 'Tudor Tin Bounds' some of these open cast workings can still be seen although much reduced in depth due to tipping. Some have been obliterated totaly by farming and land reclamation.
The old Jane adit does continue through to the Carnon Valley and it was this that 'Blew out' in the early nineteen nineties causing large scale pollution to the river Fal. The mine drove a new adit to meet the Carnon River and take the massive flow of water from the mine which was filtered through reed beds to take out the heavy metals such as Cadmium and other grot, thus keeping the water in the river Fal clean and fit for the oyster beds further down stream (maybe producing the odd pearl and not a ball bearing).
Basset Graze Lode was worked by Wheal Jane (West) and ran parallel with the B or Main Lode and Ready Money Lode along with a few small minor lodes.
Little Bread and Cheese is UP stream from the old nangiles adit and almost opposite the original County Adit portal.
Land ownership in the area is a mine field (no pun intended) with Viscount Falmouth owning the majority. However... various leases are still in force with other people, and small sections of overlapping ownerships with 'islands' of land owned by others. The mineral rights were mostly reserved by the 'Lords of the soil' apart from a few rare and isolated instances of them being sold with the land.
Stoping above the adit was certainly extensive all the way along the lode with little exeption.
I think that should answer a few of your questions Stuey. 🙂

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Brilliant, Cheers Roy!

I'm sure there are 2 bread and cheese shafts........

I'll come back to this later.

If you really want to get technical there are 3 shafts associated with the name Bread & Cheese. " Two on Bread & Cheese, and one on Little Bread & Cheese. See 1810 plan below. An adit into Little Bread & Cheese shaft was exposed during some excavations about twenty years ago. It was only about 18 feet from the entrance to the shaft. The shaft was flooded to a level about 12 feet below the floor of the adit. Looking up the shaft about 15 feet, the old style classic capping could be seen.
This was tree branches laid down first and then blinded with clay and stones well packed, more stones on top of that and then backfilled with whatever was handy at the time. In this case all the timber had gone (typical) and the stones and clay binding were clearly visible forming a slightly domed structure which seemed quite solid. The whole lot was buried up again and forgotten about and from what I can gather, completely unrecorded. The whole area has gone through many transformations with stopes being filled in shafts just covered over with dirt, the course of the river diverted, the County Adits lid ripped off in places and a large amount of artifacts destroyed before heritage became a buzz word. Still lots to see for the intrepid though! :thumbsup:

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