Loading

  • 21 Aug, 2019

  • By, Wikipedia

East Wheal Rose
East Wheal Rose was a metalliferous mine around three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km) south east of the village of St Newlyn East and is around 4 miles (6.4 km) from Newquay on the north Cornwall coast, United Kingdom. The country rock at the mine was killas and its main produce was lead ore (galena), but as is usual when mining this mineral, commercial quantities of silver and zinc were also found and sold.

Lead was found in the area in 1812 and in 1834 the mine was established, by 1846 the mine employed over 1,200 men, women and children.

The two main lodes, called Middleton's Lode and East Lode, trended north-south. The ore they contained was in places very soft and loose and the killas was also not a particularly strong rock, necessitating extensive underground timbering, particularly in the shafts. Records show that the mine had more than twenty shafts on the two lodes, and the deepest workings were at 150 fathoms (900 ft).

Disaster in 1846

The mine was sited in the valley of a small stream at the point where it opens out into a natural bowl and is virtually surrounded by hills. The outlet from this bowl is through a narrow ravine through which the stream flows into the River Gannel. Just after noon on 9 July 1846 there was an unusually heavy thunderstorm which lasted an hour and a quarter. Captain Middleton, the mine manager, reported that within five minutes of it starting to rain, water was flowing down the hills in torrents. Despite efforts by the men on the surface to dam or divert the water from the shafts the mine was rapidly flooded up to the 50 fathom (300 ft) level, and of the estimated 200 miners who were underground at the time, 39 were drowned.

Later history

Despite the setback the mine soon reopened and continued producing ore until it closed in 1886. A 90-inch engine, supplied by Messrs Harvey and company of Hayle, came into operation on 3 June 1882 and when the 900 fathoms (5,400 ft) of main adit level was cleared, several lodes were discovered and the Middleton's lode was longer than previously thought. The engine was christened ″Inne's Engine″ by Lady Innes. Between 1845 and 1885 it produced 48,200 tons of 62% lead ore, 212,700 ounces of silver and 280 tons of zinc ore.

Today, apart from the preserved engine house and chimney stack (which stands at 120 ft high), there are few remains of the mine visible. The site is a tourist attraction with a boating lake, crazy golf etc. It is at one end of the Lappa Valley Steam Railway which follows part of the route of one of the Treffry Tramways that was opened in 1849 for hauling ore from the mine to Newquay.

Mineral Statistics

From Robert Hunt's Mineral Statistics of the United Kingdom.

Lead Production (from stannary records; 1836-1861)
Year(s) Ore (Tons) Metal (Tons) ........ Value (£) Comment
1836 69.88 .. .. 960.73 Last quarter only
1837 92.35 .. .. 827.65 Lead & silver ore
1837 .. .. .. 40.70 ..
1838 169.64 .. .. 1,646.85 ..
1838 .. .. .. 505.91 ..
1839 470.24 .. .. 4,972.39 ..
1840 1,390.58 .. .. 15,087.66 ..
1841 2,614.64 .. .. 29,388.29 ..
1842 3,006.54 .. .. 32,857.84 ..
1843 4,462.50 .. .. 53,385.37 ..
1844 6,975.98 .. .. 76,558.54 ..
1845 7,412.76 .. .. 90,360.14 ..
1846 5,484.13 .. .. 72,875.95 ..
1847 6,721.21 .. .. 85,163.75 ..
1848 5,913.60 .. .. 64,017.20 ..
1849 5,128.64 .. .. 62,178.53 ..
1850 4,488.43 .. .. 62,203.99 ..
1851 2,430.19 .. .. 33,029.83 ..
1852 2,841.54 .. .. 39,198.09 ..
1853 1,627.99 .. .. 27,769.02 ..
1854 1,062.92 .. .. 16,781.07 ..
1855 2,057.73 .. .. 29,592.83 Xmas qr 1854 Incl
1856 3,245.82 .. .. 48,832.90 ..
1857 1,199.18 .. .. 20,497.08 ..
1858 723.33 .. .. 9,706.53 ..
1859 748.36 .. .. 9,213.43 ..
1860 432.55 .. .. 4,774.18 ..
1861 204.33 .. .. 1,914.21 Xmas qr 1860 incl
Lead & Silver Production (1845-1886)
Year(s) Ore (Tons) Lead (Tons) Silver (ozs) Value (£)
1845 7,883.00 4,729.00 .. ..
1846 5,191.00 3,114.00 .. ..
1847 6,424.00 3,854.00 .. ..
1848 5,333.00 3,191.00 .. ..
1849 4,758.70 2,856.00 .. ..
1850 4,206.00 2,524.10 .. ..
1851 3,192.90 2,234.00 .. ..
1852 2,381.10 1,607.00 48,000.00 ..
1853 1,357.10 925.00 27,499.00 ..
1854 1,215.00 828.30 24,621.00 ..
1855 2,343.10 1,510.30 46,760.00 ..
1856 2,691.00 1,776.00 53,280.00 ..
1857 1,199.20 791.30 23,739.00 ..
1858 726.00 416.50 10,400.00 ..
1859 728.00 386.00 13,090.00 ..
1860 607.30 322.00 10,948.00 ..
1861 147.00 66.00 2,376.00 ..
1865 44.00 31.00 1,221.00 ..
1866 147.70 102.90 4,015.00 ..
1872 6.00 4.50 22.00 ..
1882 40.00 30.00 .. ..
1883 155.40 114.70 .. 1,548.00
1884 85.00 .. .. 595.00
1885 50.00 .. .. 456.00
1886 58.00 .. .. ..
Copper Production (from ticketing records; 1850-7)
Year(s) Ore (Tons) Metal (Tons) ........ Value (£) Comment
1850 50.18 .. .. 501.14 ..
1851 97.00 .. .. 839.49 ..
1852 31.62 .. .. 138.33 ..
1854 26.29 .. .. 162.97 ..
1856 24.00 .. .. 211.20 Xmas qr 1855 incl
1857 16.52 .. .. 170.19
Zinc Production (1855-1883)
Year(s) Ore (Tons) Metal (Tons) .............. Value (£)
1855 no-details .. .. ..
1857 31.00 .. .. 4.70
1859 19.00 .. .. 8.60
1882 70.00 31.50 .. 199.00
1883 161.20 56.30 .. 167.00
Employment (1881-6)
Year(s) Total Overground Underground
1881 103 81 22
1882 139 68 71
1883 116 56 60
1884 59 27 32
1885 62 31 31
1886 62 25 37

See also

References

  1. ^ "East Wheal Rose Mine". cornwall-calling.co.uk.
  2. ^ Dines, H. G. (1956). The Metalliferous Mining Region of South-West England. Volume I. London: HMSO. pp. 499–501.
  3. ^ "Perranzabuloe Mining District - East Wheal Rose". Cornwall in Focus. Archived from the original on 18 August 2009. Retrieved 24 July 2009.
  4. ^ "The West Briton Newspaper: transcript of article from 17 July 1846". Julia Mosman & Rita Kopp. Retrieved 24 July 2009.
  5. ^ "Sir George Innes On The Work And Prospects Of East Wheal Rose". The Cornishman. No. 204 (194). 8 June 1882. p. 4.
  6. ^ "Starting a 90-inch Engine at East Wheal Rose". The Cornishman. No. 204 (194). 8 June 1882. p. 8.
  7. ^ Burt, Roger; Burnley, Ray; Gill, Michael; Neill, Alasdair (2014). Mining in Cornwall and Devon: Mines and Men. University of Exeter Press. ISBN 978-0-85989-889-8.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=East_Wheal_Rose&oldid=1197836715"