disregarding the question of whether the various drives are at sufficiently similar levels for it to be feasible at all, which I ( for one ) don't know the answer to, I would be very dubious of the financial viability of going right over to Pendarves for what would be likely to be found there

my recollection of Pendarves was that it was a wet, difficult mine with limited potential and a wide range of constraints related to the flooded workings on all sides.

I would assume that any such connection would need to be extensively ripped to provide a workable cross-section for the current plant anyway?


I recall being told at the time, that its main purpose in later days, was to provide production which could be cut with Crofty's production to give a higher total production at an acceptable run-of-mine value, without giving any problems in the mill - is this so, does anyone know?

there were also various rumours that it was useful to Crofty as a tax vehicle of some kind, but I assume that's not the case today.

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Wasn't there some wooden head gear in the Pendarves area, which I thought was an escape shaft (used it as a climbing frame as a child when we used to sneak over the fence).
From Memory I thought it was by the edge of the woods (running south from Pendarves or parallel with Knave-go-by), but the workings seem to be further over than that. Was the head gear connected to the workings shown in the maps or is my memory a bit off. Also entry for Pendarves in database seems to be in the wrong location, as photos refer to Pendarves in Camborne, location in database is shown as Scorrier.

I think you may be correct. According to IA.

SW 646 384 Killivose; Wheal Pendarves mine, Simms shaft 331m; sinking commenced 1968, in production 1971, became part of South Crofty Ltd. 1973. Very wet & bad ground. Stopped 1987, but site still occupied.

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what is the actual status of the site at Pendarves now?

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Probably best described as derelict! Its a bit of a moonscape out there, quite reminiscent of the Dolcoath site in the early 80's, both shafts are apparently capped. Yes there is a second shaft - A ladderway in the woods, which is what Dolcoathguy is referring to.

I can't relly believe there would be much potetential at Pendarves, suurouinding flooded working would be less of a problem though as the intenetion seems to be appear to be to dewater the whole area anyway!

It seems a little odd to me that they are removing the headframe from Roskear shaft really, would that not be a useful shaft in future?

The site doiesn't belong to them

It belongs to Carnon doesn't it?

I always thought that Crofty owned the shaft though... maybe I was wrong.

Will it still be used as a ventilation fan shaft?

Yeah they own the shaft and headframe, but not the ground the headframe sits on

The mine are carrying out a lot of monitoring at surface in order to prove compliance with planning conditions. Thhere was a chart at the pblic meeting about the blasting a few weeks ago, generally they seem to be recording PPVs of 4-5mm/s, do you remember how that compared with Polperro Derrickman?

don't remember the exact figures there, but that sounds quite a low figure which wouldn't cause any alarm to anyone.

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what is the actual status of the site at Pendarves now?

Sims shaft is on the CCC protected shafts plan. I think it's an important one with a 150m radius around it.

Having said, Cherry Garden Shaft and a few others in the area are super-duper plugged and they are on the plan also.

Interesting about the Pendarves footway..... one I meant to look for but forgot about. Am I right in thinking that the workings are aditless and almost flooded to the top?

I drove past New Roskear and thought "this is a nice bit of ground". It's the sort of thing that a developer would like.

Has the headgear gone yet?

I was up the this PM and couldn't find a way in. The footpath through the woods has been cordened off with barbed wire. That's assuming we are talking the same footpath of course.

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I have located the footway shaft up there, it is in an 8' depression with an old steel gantry over it, and a pipe coming out of the ground.

is this the shaft your on about[/img]

The Roskear headgear is still there when I pased just now.

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This is an interesting thread.

I was wondering about Uny and then I thought about South Carn Brea. This is a very interesting site. I assume it has been totally obliterated. I gather it drained via Barncoose which is interesting.

Morrison's book seems to suggest that there are a few levels going out along to the edge of the hill. Atkinsons book hints at some levels as well. I have been unable to find these. It would be interesting to have a poke around here, I'll see how my saturday is.

now we have come right round to another thread, accessible workings at South Carn Brea as described by Atkinson... existence of, or otherwise!

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Finally found out what the Wooden head gear near Pendarves might have been, workings in the 1970's at Wheal Tryphena, Bennetts shaft carried out by Pendarves Mine (Tryphena is adjacent to Pendarves) - which explains why it is not showing up on Pendarves plan. Pictures are shown in L.J. Bullen's Mining in Cornwall Vol 4 p102. along with many others of Pendarves Mine.

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I remember this being done, although I don't recall the wooden headgear. I lived at Croft Mitchell in 1975-7 ( out of Troon heading away from Beacon, and carry on towards Blackrock when the main road bears left .. there is a road to the right which leads you past Pendarves and comes out near Camborne police station, the next turning right leads down to Praze-an-Beeble )

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D.
That would be the Treslothan road and probably the hedge was in the way , to access it at the time I guess they would have used a farm Track across a couple of fields via a gate further up Knave-go-by. I was there in 1978, and remember some minor activity around that area.

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my Tutor ( Richard Edwards ) lived somewhere down there at the time, and I went to Pendarves once or twice over the years.. mainly when I was working for Foraky in the early 80s, they had a pneumatic cactus grab plus some other odds and ends on hire there, and I used to go down occasionally with spares.

Foraky closed their mining division entirely in the early 80s, although it had effectively ceased to function several years before, and any hired plant was simply abandoned where it lay, so I wouldn't be much surprised if it was still there.

there were two grabs, from recollection; a huge thing with a span of about 3m, which was a veteran of shaft sinking operations in the 1960s, whose occasional function was sump clearance in the local Nottingham coal mines ( hanging under the cage )

the other one was a smaller one about 2m span, which was hired to various parties over the years. I remember it being used within a small shaft ( about 2.4m dia from memory ) for the now-closed Doe Lea Colliery near Chesterfield. Pendarves had it for shaft-deepening operations about 1981, and I believe it was also at Wheal Jane at one time. It was a dangerous contraption, because if the air supply failed for any reason it would open under its own weight and dump its load - nasty 😮

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