I'm in West Cornwall, but there are several of us who meet up and do bits and bobs. The Carbis Bay Crew not-club was formed from a load of people going in various adits and eventually grew with people like yourself into quite a large pool of people.
Many of them are involved in rescue....mucking around with ropes and hauling "victims" out of holes (there is some politics and bad feeling here - best never mentioned).
I'm out and about all over the county and we're always keen on meeting new people and going on trips.
You have Plymouth Caving Group, which is a good way into ropework and meeting people you can later go out with and do some proper exploring with.
Kev and Gary are in the Caradon area and they are very active (as well as being good blokes). Kev is McDermit on here. I do quite a bit with Kev and he's into the deep and the dangerous. Balls of steel...
Down in West Cornwall, you have a big pool of people kicking around. There are several mineral collector types, some rescue team ropey types and a couple of clubs. People are often out in various aggregations and they are on the whole, very welcoming. There is some politics and bad feeling between the old mine rescue team and the new rescue team and this grumbles along in the background.
It's on the whole a fantastic scene of great people and as a subject, I cannot recommend it highly enough.
On carbisbaycrew.co.uk there is a downloads section where you may rip off the HJ maps and other things.