lyndonb
  • lyndonb
  • 50.2% (Neutral)
  • Newbie Topic Starter
13 years ago
Hey guys... :)
Does anyone have information on the extent of work that was carried out in the 1980's. I gather Mount Wellington and Wheal Jane connected via the decline but to what extent? πŸ˜‰
stuey
  • stuey
  • 50.2% (Neutral)
  • Newbie
13 years ago
If you look at the map, you will see that there is a line of workings from Old Wheal Jane, through West Jane (new jane) and Nangiles, then through Wellington into United and on through Squire and Ting Tang.

There is a parallel line of workings through Consols (including Maid) through Carharrack mine and onwards towards Wheal Damsel.....(and several other parallel series of lodes).

Mount Wellington went out under United, but not to a massive extent and most certainly not on the exact main United Lode.

In the 80's the Wheal Maid decline was sunk from the area between Wheal Maid and West Wheal Fortune (both Consols) and this dipped at about 1:7 towards the parallel United lodes. It was thought that there was a lot of tin in the small Whiteworks Mine (which there is) and that the United Miners were in such a rush to remove the copper bonanza, they left parallel lodes standing and any tin associated with the wall rock. They were going firstly through a gap in the stoping into United (which they never got around to) and then another branch off under Ting-Tang and the Damsels. They never got around to this either.

In conjunction, they moved their mobile headframe around various shafts in the area (which are noted by their nice collars) and did some very nice plans and measurements.

In my opinion, the Gwennap district is the most fascinating of all in Cornish mining.

The decline is well buried and goes straight to water. If you had diving gear, you could come up in Whiteworks which was buried by the nice local scrap man. Interesting hole with lots of tin in, I gather. Jon Peck did a book called "Wheal Jane Underground" which is worth a read, as is the "Painting a Mine with Light" and the rest of it is poorly recorded, although there are lots of people in the area who you can talk to who were involved with the workings.

To your original question, United and Old Jane are connected by workings which you could walk from one end to the other from approx Frederick's Shaft of United to Tippets East of Old Jane.

There are some plans floating around on Mine Explorer, if you look for them.

The main reason for doing this work was that Poldory in United and Whiteworks were looked at in WW2 and got encouraging values. This is recorded by Dines. The work was re-investigated by the then Wellington Company. Sadly, Whiteworks is under Drew's yard and is gone for good and Poldory is under the dump.

I've gone in most of it, apart from the bit immediately under the tip, which would be very interesting, but probably deadly. I gather there are still some things like wagons on rails in Poldory....all sadly buried under the tip.

If it had been down to me, I would have made a rubbish mountain on the outskirts of Newquay instead....improved it a bit.

lyndonb
  • lyndonb
  • 50.2% (Neutral)
  • Newbie Topic Starter
13 years ago
Thanks very much stuey, very informative. πŸ™‚
spitfire
13 years ago
Rubbish tip on the outskirts of Newquay? Why not put it in the middle?
spitfire
lyndonb
  • lyndonb
  • 50.2% (Neutral)
  • Newbie Topic Starter
13 years ago
Quote:

Rubbish tip on the outskirts of Newquay? Why not put it in the middle?

:lol:
stuey
  • stuey
  • 50.2% (Neutral)
  • Newbie
13 years ago
Here it is in a visual. Decline is in red.

πŸ”—Personal-Album-205-Image-77226[linkphoto]Personal-Album-205-Image-77226[/linkphoto][/link]
lyndonb
  • lyndonb
  • 50.2% (Neutral)
  • Newbie Topic Starter
13 years ago
Thanks again :)
Tezarchaeon
13 years ago
What's the entrance looking like these days? I went looking for it recently and there seemed to be a whole tonne of weeds and trees there. I know it was bulldozed shut, but just curious if there is anything worth seeing at the entrance.
stuey
  • stuey
  • 50.2% (Neutral)
  • Newbie
13 years ago
No, it is majorly majorly backfilled.

tin man
12 years ago
know this site very well, i have large plans that carnon did of this area, i have collected many rich specimens of cassiterite as well as other minerals from the dumps,i often wondered why the decline couldnt have been worked small scale. the tin is of exceptional purity ,one could imagine a small operation nestled in the valley , from what iv read it seem just perfect for such an enterprise. oh btw i went in the decline years ago before the backfill n the air was bad few hundred yards down but didnt find water!! one cant help but wonder what all that rubbish above is doing leachate n gasses i bet :blink:, anyway in anywhere i know of n any problems like that aside one would say this place cries out for a go . :thumbsup:
royfellows
12 years ago
I went in down to water.
Bad air, yes, and something else nastier.
People had being going for the copper in the electric cables, and guess where they had burned off the insulation?
My avatar is a poor likeness.
lyndonb
  • lyndonb
  • 50.2% (Neutral)
  • Newbie Topic Starter
12 years ago
:)

Any chance of some scans of some scans/photos of plans my man ? πŸ˜‰ :angel:
lyndonb
  • lyndonb
  • 50.2% (Neutral)
  • Newbie Topic Starter
12 years ago
"royfellows" wrote:

People had being going for the copper in the electric cables, and guess where they had burned off the insulation?



How do you mean Roy ? x
stuey
  • stuey
  • 50.2% (Neutral)
  • Newbie
12 years ago
I am a bit of a United Downs landfill gas sceptic.

I know the area is a bit dodgy, but there is nothing we've bumped into anything near as bad as Wheal Busy/Scorrier.

We've gone up the United Adit branch to the shaft under Ware's Scrapyard. We've been down Wheal Moor which is connected right to Poldory as well as William's Shaft in Squire Woods, which is straight onto South Lode of united. There was nothing to get excited about. This may have changed since Jane stopped pumping. I gather Squire did have a fair bit of landfill flammables in.

I know that both the bottom level of Whiteworks and the bottom of the maid decline had poor air, which varied with the water in there.

Whiteworks is pretty much the best prospect for small scale tin in Cornwall, from a get-it-now point of view and a dress-it-now point of milling. I suppose the central questions are:-

1. What state is the decline in and could it be an access point (I gather some of the timbers are missing).

2. If you were to pump out the decline to gain access to the base of Whiteworks, is this hydrostatically isolated from United and Consols? If not, you'd have to pump out the whole of Gwennap, pretty much.

3. What are the planning constraints and ownership of the minerals and the bit of land Drew has annexed which was the original site?

The fact that water is approximate to county adit would suggest there is some sort of a connection, but where that is, who knows. From what I gathered speaking to a fair few people, it took a while to fill up after jane stopped pumping.

There were also a few side lodes which didn't get looked at.
tin man
12 years ago
id have to arrange a private meeting for u to view my plans as they are very large ,i had a whole lot of other stuff including monthly reports at one time that i rescued from a skip, sadly i dont have all that i saved thru moving and such, i still have the plans tho, anyway my feeling is there is no connection to the county adit or consols or united, it drained thru percolation mostly,jack describes it as having only the riches picked out n what jane was taking was little more than the scraps, that the richer stuff is just below the reach of the old mens workings, im pretty sure im rite in thinking south crofty own the mineral rights. sure would be good to chat with anyone that worked maid decline... theyd have some idea about the water situation u mention that it took a while to flood.... something as u know is out of character with the area lol, the way the old men worked it there was no pumping as such and that was when the surrounding mines where definitely flooded .just like to add the county adit is the water table and as such the water table is pretty deep as a consequence just because the waters are at the same level dosen't mean its all directly connected up.
stuey
  • stuey
  • 50.2% (Neutral)
  • Newbie
12 years ago
Can you view private messages?
royfellows
12 years ago
"lyndonb" wrote:

"royfellows" wrote:

People had being going for the copper in the electric cables, and guess where they had burned off the insulation?



How do you mean Roy ? x



They had burned it inside the decline which had been bricked up. Access was by a small hole in the brickwork so it could not ventilate.
So beside bad air there was God knows what kind of gasses produced. At the water level I nearly fell over and had a sort of 'out of this world feeling'
My avatar is a poor likeness.
tin man
12 years ago
got ur pms but i cant send back stupid defaults grr computers i hate them lol .. yes sure was an outer world feeling when i went down there so didnt hang about,shame the local pikeys didnt poison them selves .
tin man
12 years ago
cant unblock pms because i do not understand what on earth its asking for... some sever nonsense please if theres an admin can u sort out my pms .im not very good with computers and simply dont understand what its asking for i never use microsofts emailing mostly cos i could never find out what on earth there asking for ...server lol ?how should i know .i do not have that info please just contact me on [email protected]
wal1959
12 years ago
"royfellows" wrote:

I went in down to water.
Bad air, yes, and something else nastier.
People had being going for the copper in the electric cables, and guess where they had burned off the insulation?



A few of us accidentally wandered into MWelly 2 weeks ago and the O2 level hit 11.3 percent in the old workings. I recall 2 years ago we did the bic test and the lighter lit thus O2 at about 19 percent. What could account for such a huge change?

Disclaimer: Mine exploring can be quite dangerous, but then again it can be alright, it all depends on the weather. Please read the proper disclaimer.
© 2005 to 2023 AditNow.co.uk

Dedicated to the memory of Freda Lowe, who believed this was worth saving...