Posted on behalf of member Wheal

This image is of the large elvan boulders that were placed around the mouth of the shaft of Long Rock mine in Mounts Bay off of Marazion. Although not as famous perhaps as Wherry Mine also in Mounts Bay, it does demonstrate just how far and ingenious the 18th century miners were. Long Rock mine is situated approximately 500m off-shore and would have been worked by flat-rods from an engine on-shore.

According to Hamilton-Jenkin, the shaft was sunk "a few fathoms" on a tin lode which is crossed by a lead/silver/antimony lode around 1830ish. How many other "impossible" places were mines started?

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Restronguet Creek tin mine.

Well Black Angel springs to mind.

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Someone will answer this one.
A few years ago I was fosicking about on one of the beach coves north east of St Just and I believe that Dines describes a mine with a shaft below the high water mark, must have had a built up collar.
Anyway, I found it. An innocuous looking 6 foot square hole in seaweed covered rocks full of water, with children playing around it.
I wonder how deep it is.
Where was it?
I can’t remember.

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Restronguet Creek was remarkable for being driven through the tin bearing alluvial deposits under the creek rather than in the underlying bedrock.

Roy,

Off the top of my head, I think it's Carnelloe Consols (Zennor). The shaft being on Veor Cove, about here:-

http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=50.195133&lon=-5.582672&z=17.2&r=0&src=msl 

I think it was in Trounson's book of good bets in Cornwall.

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There's a quarry called Gairbh Eilean on North Uist/Uibhist a' Teach, where one of the many small islands has basically been completely quarried away, quite unusual really.
Found various other small quarries in Scotland, some tiny ones situated upon the cliff tops of South Ronaldsay, Orkney. In various places around Morcambe Bay and The Solway Firth, miners appear to have done mining in natural sea caves as well.

A few more ancient sites also spring to mind, including The Stone Age axe factory of The Langdales, which is situated in a very steep gully near the summet of one of the Langdale Pikes.

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Again, Cornwall.

#1 If you pick a low tide day, and walk out past the old harbour ruins at St Agnes there is a natural cave, with a very short length of tramway complete with rails.

#2 If you drive out to the coast guard lookout near St Agnes. Park you transport and then walk back in the direction of aggie you will come to a ‘hole’ where the path goes through a Cornish wall, there is a beehive covered shaft nearby. Follow a path down towards the cliffs and you reach an adit. About 40 yards in there is a winze. The winze looks about 40 feet, its actually a twist to where the winze becomes and incline, and the incline goes down at a steep angle to break out of the cliffs about 80 feet above the sea. There is a level going inland a considerable distance before this. Its called Warrens Well. Queer old place. The noise of the sea and the spray come up to the adit, it’s a place that separates the men from the boys, SRT wise.

#3 This is an easy and popular place, but a bit on the strange side anyway. Above aggie harbour follow the coast path towards Porthtowan, you will pass the big opencast of Wheal Luna and concrete leat. Keep going to where you again see a beehive cap and follow a path down on the right. You will need about 120 feet of rope for an abseil down the cliffs, (See on the ‘other’ website a pic of me coming up the cliff in my ‘shades’ taken by Shaza who thought I looked cool, Rock an Roll is here to stay!) Anyway, you will reach a mine “Old Polberrow”. Follow the lode west and there is a level out into a natural sea cave, also a bob plat to a shaft now full of rubbish. Another strange old place.

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Pipers Cave in Dumfries & Galloway, the sea cave can be entered, but the roof almost meets the sandy floor, however with a bit of digging you can enter a continuation of the cave then climb up 15ft into a copper level complete with flooded sump, lovely spot.

Yes, I've seen the album for this Heb.
How old is it do you know?

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How old is it do you know?

Don't know, but the nearby Colvend workings were around 1770.

The trial in Driedley Gill, 2,100ft up Glaramara (Cumbria) makes you wonder how anyone ever found a vein worth trying there!
I can highly recommend the stroll up to visit it.

Cheers;
As for the ones on the shores of Morcambe Bay: there are various small trials around the Carnforth area, it appears that some iron prospecting has also taken place within sea caves.
Near Ulveston there's a mine called Seawood Cave, where a copper level has, I belive been worked from the back of a sea cave.

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I think this one of those subjects that has no end. Or at least is circular.When I was reading about the mines in the Grand Canyon it's a bit mind boggling.

"Ore from the Grandview mine in the late 1880's was brought up the trail by mules and burros--each mule carried a load of about 200 pounds and could average a trip and a half per day down and up the 2,500 feet of vertical relief".

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When it comes to the nitty gritty (I hope the PC brigade are are not reading this) they were all brave and innovative people.

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The trial in Driedley Gill, 2,100ft up Glaramara ...

Even higher is the trial/small working near the summit of Moel Llyfnant (west of Arenig Fawr) at an altitude of something like 2,400 feet!

Dave

Again, Cornwall.
#2 If you drive out to the coast guard lookout near St Agnes. Park you transport and then walk back in the direction of aggie you will come to a ‘hole’ where the path goes through a Cornish wall, there is a beehive covered shaft nearby. Follow a path down towards the cliffs and you reach an adit. About 40 yards in there is a winze. The winze looks about 40 feet, its actually a twist to where the winze becomes and incline, and the incline goes down at a steep angle to break out of the cliffs about 80 feet above the sea. There is a level going inland a considerable distance before this. Its called Warrens Well. Queer old place. The noise of the sea and the spray come up to the adit, it’s a place that separates the men from the boys, SRT wise.

The Warren's Well that Roy refers to is the local's name for the mine; The mine's proper name is Wheal Devonshire.
Who Warren was and who would be daft enough to use the place for a source of water no one seems to know. I was told by the late William Doble who's family has worked the clay and sand deposits nearby for a century or more, that at Easter people would gather on the cliff above the mine and small fishing boats woud cluster around the base of the cliff where all would sing hymns. Just what the significance of this gathering was seems now to have faded into obscurity.
Any one taking a trip into the mine must beware of three things:
1. There is a crossroads (after a flatout crawl), waist deep in water and a shaft / stope right on the junction...Glug Glug!

2. The stope immediately to the right of this same junction which is part filled with 'deads' is dangerous. The stulls beneath that once supported the deads have long since gone and all the fines have been washed out from between the rocks leaving them suspended and when I was there last a friend had a narrow escape when the lot started to run. He went down into the water with the stope fill collapsing around him. He was lucky to have come out at all let alone without serious injury.

3. The place is absolutely gaggled with ochre and in places it's like wading through tomato soup, whereas in others the consistency is more akin to Philladelphia cheese.
No real problem with this as such, but the adit drains to the sea and the red slick that emerges is more than a little noticeable especially to the guys that set their lobster pots in the area.
The Environmental Agency would probably have kittens if they were to be tipped off and catch anyone. 😮 😮
Take care and use a rebelay at the first level. :thumbsup:

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On a tangent, wasn't Wheal Devonshire a source of candle clay?

I wondered about all the clay built up in the adit with the winze (Trevaunance.....Luna?) as it is particularly fine.

On a tangent, wasn't Wheal Devonshire a source of candle clay

The St.Agnes Candle Clay Works which existed until at least 1908 sourced all their clay from the surface deposits. Clay is still extracted there today by the same family. The deposit overlays the St.Agnes beacon granite mass (the source of the candle clay), and has a somewhat peculiar co-existence with a Pliocene raised beach, the sand from which is also exploited. A particular type of white sand has from time to time, been specially sourced from here for making high grade optical glass. The sand is a very pure silica sand and under the microscope or a small hand lens, consists of smooth rounded grains instead of the more familiar sharp and/or angular grains of common beach sand.
At some point in the geological past there have been hydrothermal / hot gaseous vents blowing up through the beach which have fused the sand into solid lumps resembling organ pipes. These 'Sand Pipes' can vary in size (diameter), from the thickness of a pencil to a foot or more across and form large conglomerates; en masse they can be very impressive. It's been some years since any have been encountered but it's just a matter of time.
Here are a couple of pics. The first is the Sand Quarry, note the different coloured bands; the second is underground in Wheal Devonshire.

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theres a mine near helston down the loe pool lane it was sunk in the marsh wil have to find the details though

I assumed that the candle clay was leached out as the deposits near trevaunance are quite major and the clay is of high purity.

I wonder about the origin of the sand pipes, I would have thought it would have been all done thermally there a seriously long time ago...... Do you have a reference for that Roy?