Whilst working ion records of Swansea copper ore sales in the 1818-1846 period I have come across a few copper mines which have defeated finding locations. Please can anyone help with locating any of the following? They are all stated to be English copper mines but from experience there can be Irish, Scottish and Welsh copper mines amongst the list.

Dandycombe Mine (75 tons 1835 only)

Denyscombe Mine (77 tons 1836 only) possibly = Calstock Consols?

Eagle Mine (10 tons 1842 only) possibly the Lake District mine of this name? - did it possibly produce copper as well as lead?

Eardistone Mine (50 tons 1840 only) there is a place of this name in Worcestershire but that seems to be a red herring.

Falcon Mine (12 tons 1844 only)

Heston Mine (19 tons 1839 only) possibly = Helston?

Mineral Field Mine (178 tons 1819 only) possibly associated with Mineral Bottom or Mineral Court?

Prince Mine (64 tons 1841; 20 tons 1843) presumably Wheal Prince near St.Ives - but did this mine work in this period?

Swanterstown Mine (31 tons 1818 only) this name has an irish feel to it.

I've trawled Hamilton-Jenkin's 16 part series, and many of the Min Stats reprints (but do not have all areas to hand), as well as having tried online searches of these names and slight varients of them, without success.

Any suggestions that aditnow members can make would be gratefully appreciated!

Is this a possibility for Eardistone? NGR: (Plantation) SJ365247

http://www.shropshirecmc.org.uk/sites/eardiston.html 

Found with MemoryMap search.

[photo]Personal-Album-1695-Image-64012[/photo]

This sounds like Heston.


"While iron was being mined at Auchinleck, copper was being obtained on the island of Heston, then on lease to an English tenant. This ore was shipped to Swansea. Another copper mine had been opened up at about the same time on Airds Farm near the cliff edge, but according to tradition, (quite accurately as was proved later), an accident to the pump caused the mine to flood and work was abandoned not long after mid-century".

Full history of the area, (if it's the right place)?

http://www.auchencairn.org.uk/hugh-patons-history-auchencairn-history-107 

Edit: Appears to be here under Hestan.

http://www.aditnow.co.uk/mines/Hestan-Island-Copper-Mine/ 

Many thanks Morlock!

Eardiston fits very well inded with the dates of ore sales at Swansea from 'Eardistone'.

Heston/Haston is also a good fit, with the mention of ore being shipped to Swansea seemingly clinching the matter.

Two down ... seven to go!

There was a wheal Helston at work in the 1840s at Lowertown near Helston. It was reputed to be 34 fathoms deep and pumped by a waterwheel. It was the breakage of this wheel that caused the mine to be abandoned.
For Denyscombe mine, that may be Danescombe mine near Calstock.
As for Mineral field this is far too early for Mineral Court

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Going back to original sources often gives differing or totally different spellings, I assume your source was the MGS. See correspondence in WMS newsletter quite a few years ago now.
Dendyscombe etc should be Danescombe
A lot of the sales at Swansea were in fact slags, I suspect Eagle Falcon and Prince might be these. Think it unlikely Prince was at St Ives but might be wrong. Graigfawr you may remember our previous correspondence on the subject (perhaps 10 years ago or so?), have still to have a look at any of the original sources you suggested in Wales but hope to do so eventually.

Thanks for that Alasdair. Yes - MGS vol.1 as you surmised. Between the varient early C19 spellings and wilful disregard for orthography of non-mainstream 'English' placenames, and the numerous typographical errors, a goodly proportion of the names are mangled to various degrees.

Do you consider both Dandycombe and Dendyscombe to probably equate to Danescombe?

Many slags are specified as such but yes - there are many others that are clearly slags but which are not so specificed in the lists. However, Eagle, Prince and Falcon sound quite plausible for mine names in this period when the later C19 habit of christening smelting (and other) works with such names had not yet fully kicked in.

Prince - this in fact seems to be foreign, one the original copper co's ticketing books surviving in Truro lists the ships on which ores were shipped, but apparently only for foreign ores. These were perhaps recorded for Customs purposes. Prince was included in these.

Swanterstown Mine (31 tons 1818 only) this name has an irish feel to it

Suspect this is actually SALTERSTOWN in County Louth - really just a showing with some surface grubbings. Similar workings at Loughshinney in County Dublin as well.

Sounds like you've got it right, it'll be Hestan Isle, Dumfries and Galloway, and there was a copper mine there. Also elsewhere in the district at Enrick, Lauchentyre, Dromore, Drumruck, Tonderghie and Colvend. Information on the Hestan mines is taken here from "The Industrial Archaeology of Galloway", by Ian Donnachie, 271p, David & Charles, 1971:

"Hestan Island (NX8350): these old copper mines are located near the N end of the rocky island of Hestan, situated at the mouth of Auchencairn Bay. They were probably first worked in the late 18th century and re-opened by an English company before 1845. Ore was shipped to Swansea. On the W of the island two levels 15yd apart have been driven inwards from just above sea-level, and 30ft higher up there is another level. Further up, the sites of two old shafts can be traced and on the other side of the island there is further evidence of mining activity."

Hope this helps!

Chris

Alasdair - that's a very intriguing piece of evidence - thanks for the lead.

Minego - thanks for the lead; it sounds quite plausible.

Blackcraig1 - thanks for the additional detaail that seems to confirm the correlation of Heston with Hestan.

Now had time to check further these sites
Dandycombe/Denyscombe - also spelt Danescombe in original sources
Eagle - foreign
Falcon - not sure
Mineral Field - I have an idea this was Staffs or Derbyshire but can't find where I got that from, so may not be correct
Prince - foreign
Swanterstown - parcels listed in original sources as "Irish" rather than under this name. Cole's memoir (GSI 1922) lists Salterstown as worked by Hibernian Mining Co before 1828 so seems likely to be this.

Very useful indeed Alisdair!

What are the 'original sources' that you refer to? As far as I was aware, the summary in MGS was the only surviving Swansea ticketing data save for (1) a less detailed summary in Phillips & Darlington which extends to 1856 rather than 1847, (2) a single 1859 specimen page in Percy's 'Metallurgy' vol.1, and (3) a few odd hand written sheets at Bangor University which I very recently was told of.

[Edit 12.7.2011] Are you referring to the Jenkins papers that you emailed me about a couple of years ago?

I think I gave a summary of the main sources I have been using in the Welsh Mines Soc newsletter article some time ago, but the main original sources I have used are:
Swansea Ticketings details published in West Briton & Royal Cornwall Gazette (the latter at least is now available on line but I have found an online search of these very unreliable, I went through these systematically) (these cover pretty much from the start of the ticketings but there are many gaps), & in Mining Journal after 1835.
Jenkin letters at RIC truro (which give details of sampling of ore for the Ticketings, & also of Private Purchases by Pascoe Grenfell &Sons & the crown Copper Co)
MS Books of ticketing details at RIC and Cornwall CRO, apparently originating from Pascoe Grenfells & Sims Willyams & Co. & other Cos.
These sources add hugely to the MGS details, often enabling figures for copper content & value to be added & show a lot of the figures given in the MGS to be wrong - sometimes the wrong year, or figures attributed to the wrong mine.
So far I have systematically gone through these sources up to 1847, but as there are still plenty of gaps/inconsistencies would like to look at any Welsh sources at some stage.

The Eardiston mine is mentioned in the NMRS Volume on Gallantry Bank. It was all filled in by the farmer about 20 years ago

Mike