Are the large stones in the pics which show at low tide discernable as part of the mine workings? Was there originally a caisson or something around the shaft and these were possibly part of that?
Is the small pool in the centre of the photo the shaft collar or is it a bit vague so many years after it was worked.
Are there any remains of the link to the shore? I remember HJ saying there were stone supports but Google Earth shows nothing these days and there is nothing obvious in the sand.
And last but not least was there a direct (maybe underground !) link to the Mexico pub. Because the mine was only accessible at low tide it meant that the miners had a lot of waiting to do. Where else would they wait? Had to be at the pub.
Taking this a stage further perhaps the mine was a complete fabrication to allow the miners to get to the pub ('just off to work at the mine me lover'). The real mine profits were made at the Mexico maybe.

---

Interesting comments because having actually stood inside the ring of stones supposedly originally forming the breakwater around the shaft, the ground seems pretty solid with no immediate evidence of having been infilled.
Saying that, with 150 years of pounding by the sea and the dense growth of seaweed it is difficult to be certain. So could well be the site mentioned by Hamiliton Jenkin.

There is plenty of evidence of mineralisation however as well as lots of a soft 'peaty' like substance. This might have been left over from pollution from the Torrey Canon. It is not easy to access the 'rock' but well worth a poke around if you can. There is certainly evidence of mining activity.

There are several large stones in a rough line bewtween the assumed site of the shaft and the foreshore that might have suported flat-rods from an engine but these do not line up with Long Rock Village itself but slightly westward.

Well worth a look if only for the eel grass beds at low tide and sea horses in summer if lucky.

Wheal

---

other halvs grampy told him about a mine off shore near pz but said it was west of pz about as far out as the end of the pool but not that far towards newlyn
anyone no what that is called?

---

Please excuse my ignorance of the area but is the Long Rock and Ryemans Lighthouse on the same (presumably harder) outcrop of rock that appears to run SW-NE?

other halvs grampy told him about a mine off shore near pz but said it was west of pz about as far out as the end of the pool but not that far towards newlyn
anyone no what that is called?

Wheal Wherry. Probably unique in having a shaft destroyed and its operations terminated by collision with a ship.

---

Just to add a wee bit to the previous. The shafts were just south of Wherrytown (surprise) on the west side of Penzance. The reef opposite Wherrytown was worked for tin from at least the beginning of the 18th century although little is known about this. Anyway have put them on GE although a little may be lost in the conversion. They look about right just east of Loriggan Rocks.

🔗Personal-Album-272-Image-47174[linkphoto]Personal-Album-272-Image-47174[/linkphoto][/link]

---

Just for the record...
This thread concerns the offshore mine at LongRock, Wheal Mexico. The Wherry mine is a different mine (more famous) on the wherry rocks at Penzance a couple of miles away to the west from this thread.

---

I appreciate that but was just attempting to answer ditzy's question.

---

thanks for that, he was told that a rock that stands up quiet clearly marked the spot, apparently his grampy said it was called chimney rock and could be seen at half tide and below

his grampy new jack penhale the pen name of an old miner from levant raymond harry and he has a signed copy of his book mine under the sea
also has 2 other copies that are unread/new

---

other halvs grampy told him about a mine off shore near pz but said it was west of pz about as far out as the end of the pool but not that far towards newlyn
anyone no what that is called?

Wheal Wherry. Probably unique in having a shaft destroyed and its operations terminated by collision with a ship.

The Wherry Mine was known as just that, never as Wheal Wherry!

---

Although I agree in general with your comment I have some reservations about never. In his paper A new look at the Wherry Mine, Penzance in the Journal of the Trevithick Society 2008 Peter Joseph refers to Wheal Wherry. Also when discussing the origins of 'Wherry' he references Smith B.P., writing in 1840 who records the mine as variously Wheal Wherry, Huel Wherry and Huel Ferry, the latter a hitherto unknown name!

---

Saying Wheal Wherry simply does not roll off the tongue very well, try saying it quickly with a few pints and no teeth and its easy to understand why its generally called the Wherry Mine

---