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  • 21 Aug, 2019

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Poldice Mine

Poldice mine is a former metalliferous mine located in Poldice Valley in southwest Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated near the hamlet of Todpool, between the villages of Twelveheads and St Day, three miles (5 km) east of Redruth. Since the early 2000’s the area has been adopted by the local mountain biking community known as the Dice Rollers. The area is now nationally famous as the best location to ride MTB in the south west attracting attention from youtube superstars such as Ben Deakin and his friend Matt Edgie. This is a popular location for mountain bicycling

History

A legal document of 1512 about a theft of tin "near Poldyth in Wennap" indicates that mining was probably taking place around Poldice at that time, but this mine is certainly known to have been in operation by the 17th century. At the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th century, 800 to 1,000 men were employed.

In 1748, Poldice's chief adventurer William Lemon and manager John Williams started the Great County Adit in the Carnon Valley. It formed a cheap and effective method of draining many of the mines in the locality and also provided a means of locating new lodes of ore. When the adit reached Poldice in the late 1760s, the mine was using two Newcomen steam engines, with cylinders of diameter 66 inches and 60 inches to drain the mine into the adit.

As the mine was some distance from the sea, transport to market was a problem for the mining operation. A pioneering railway, the Portreath Tramroad was opened in 1812 giving access to Portreath harbour.

In November 1821 a 90-inch Woolf single-cylinder pumping engine was installed at the mine, the third one of this size in the county, after two had been installed at Consolidated Mines in February of the same year. These were by far the largest steam engines in Cornwall at the time. In 1842 this engine was raising an average of 887 gallons per minute and it was one of the most heavily worked engines in the county. It was re-cylindered as an 85 inch in 1845 and was still working well when it was sold for £700 in August 1867 to Great Western Deep Coal Co. in the Forest of Dean.

By the 1860s the copper industry was in decline, and some time between 1869 and 1872 the mine sold £12,000 worth of redundant equipment to J. C. Lanyon & Son of Redruth, a major dealer and exporter of mine equipment. Despite these sales, the mine purchased from Perran Foundry a new 85-inch pumping engine that cost £2,250 and which was in operation by early 1873. At the time it was needed to deal with the water flooding into the mine as a result of a very wet winter, but in July 1873 after working for just 6 months, the engine was up for sale and the mine had closed because it was unable to cope with the cost of pumping water out of the workings. The engine was sold to a company in Scotland.

Minerals

The mine was extracting tin ore in 1748, but by 1788 the output of copper ore exceeded that of tin, and by the 1790s it was making a good profit. In the early 19th century the mine merged with neighbour Wheal Unity. The mine switched to arsenic extraction, although metals were still being mined in decreasing quantities, but by the 1910s most of the activity was over and although small-scale mining continued into the 1920s, it closed in 1930.

Apart from the enormous quantities of the common ores mined at Poldice, the area was also known for rarer and more valuable minerals including chalcophyllite, olivenite, mimetite and liroconite.

The site today

Today, the ruins of many mine buildings and mineshafts are visible in the Poldice Valley, which has not seen any further development since the end of mining. The valley is now a nature reserve.

Mineral Statistics

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

Copper Production (from ticketing records; 1801-1867)
Year(s) Ore (Tons) Metal (Tons) Value (£) Comment
1801 925.00 78.32 7345.75 Cu est., 6 months only
1802 1497.00 118.71 9860.85 Cu est., c 6 months only
1803 2176.00 183.84 18337.25 Cu est., c 8 months only
1804 4295.00 337.41 37296.08 Cu est
1805 4852.00 382.84 52785.53 Cu est
1806 4654.00 402.10 41806.93 ..
1807 4189.00 383.74 32859.98 Cu partly est
1808 3678.00 357.94 25938.38 Cu est
1809 3529.00 284.54 31259.80 Cu est
1810 3559.00 262.75 25331.35 ..
1811 3659.00 289.97 25295.68 ..
1812 1882.00 147.92 12003.90 ..
1813 680.00 54.22 4616.10 ..
1814 989.00 77.68 7765.20 ..
1815 854.00 62.47 5390.65 ..
1816 914.00 69.04 4612.73 ..
1817 619.00 43.46 3084.70 ..
1818 970.00 52.49 5015.48 ..
1819 726.00 46.23 4282.15 Cu est., with Unity
1820 553.00 39.66 3106.00 With Unity
1821 1322.00 107.33 7423.40 ..
1822 2955.00 259.08 19518.00 Includes some Unity ore, Cu partly est., with Poldice & Unity Wood, excludes fluorspar sold at copper ticketings
1823 3792.00 365.90 29398.20 Includes 2 months Unity ore, Cu est. with Unity, & with Unity Wood, excludes fluorspar
1824 3678.00 342.80 27542.10 Cu est., with Unity, excludes fluorspar
1825 3490.00 290.03 28608.83 Cu est., with Unity
1826 3677.00 306.62 23279.40 Cu est., with Unity & Poldice, East
1827 3359.00 280.59 21674.78 Cu est., with Poldice, East & Unity. Excludes fluorspar
1828 3687.00 295.83 23145.80 Cu est., with Poldice, East & Unity
1829 4213.00 329.39 24933.58 Cu est., with Unity. Excludes fluorspar
1830 3383.00 275.65 19656.68 With Unity. Excludes fluorspar
1831 2563.00 209.63 14169.13 With Unity. Excludes fluorspar
1832 1755.00 146.14 10680.60 With Unity
1833 1403.00 117.26 9449.13 ..
1834 999.00 80.98 6165.03 Cu est., with Unity
1835 669.00 56.54 4217.10 Cu partly est., with Unity
1836 762.00 52.77 4699.68 ..
1837 785.00 61.70 4578.43 ..
1838 910.00 73.40 5560.83 Fluorspar excluded
1839 864.00 80.85 6015.15 Fluorspar excluded
1840 1238.00 113.03 9101.60 ..
1841 2298.00 189.15 17200.90 ..
1842 2809.00 220.18 17121.13 ..
1843 3088.00 226.84 16665.45 ..
1844 2928.00 206.59 14701.45 ..
1848 944.00 81.47 4859.55 From Mineral Statistics
1867 46.00 2.47 167.90 From HJ/7/7
Tin Production (1867-1930)
Year(s) Black (Tons) Stuff (Tons) Value (£)
1867 41.90 .. 1,976.90
1868 112.80 .. 5,563.40
1869 157.00 .. 10,378.30
1870 275.50 .. 19,591.10
1871 307.50 .. 23,352.60
1872 212.70 .. 17,608.00
1873 176.20 .. 13,651.60
1874 20.60 .. 1,111.90
1875 24.00 15.90 1,309.00
1876 3.10 17.80 235.60
1877 4.80 7.60 198.30
1878 6.30 .. 201.50
1879 .. 100.00 126.00
1888-1889 no-details .. ..
1890 2.40 5,117.00 1,690.00
1891 3.00 3,367.00 710.00
1892 .. 66.00 77.00
1898 .. 42.00 17.00
1899 .. 74.00 44.00
1900 no-details .. ..
1905 no-details .. ..
1906 .. 511.00 416.00
1907 .. 512.00 343.00
1908 .. 695.00 461.00
1909 .. 411.00 329.00
1910 .. 381.00 53.00
1912 .. 223.00 409.00
1913 .. 933.00 675.00
1914 .. .. 211.00
1915 .. .. 445.00
1916 no detailed return .. ..
1917 6.00 .. 442.00
1917-1921 no-details .. ..
1918 0.05 .. 12.00
1928-1930 no-details .. ..
Arsenic Production (1867-1918)
Year(s) Ore (Tons) Value (£)
1867 38.90 87.40
1870 50.00 105.60
1872 105.00 200.00
1873 68.00 264.10
1889 8.00 42.00
1890 12.00 71.00
1891 7.00 47.00
1893 7.00 80.00
1895 11.00 94.00
1896 3.00 44.00
1918 no detailed return ..
Employment (1878-1930)
Year(s) Total Overground Underground
1878 9 6 3
1879 7 4 3
1888 41 20 21
1889 28 21 7
1890 47 29 18
1891 5 1 4
1892 3 .. 3
1893 4 .. 4
1894 2 .. 2
1895 9 9 ..
1896 11 11 ..
1898-1900 4 .. 4
1905 7 7 ..
1906 8 8 ..
1908 16 16 ..
1909 7 7 ..
1910 11 11 ..
1911 12 8 4
1912 15 13 2
1913 16 14 2
1917 9 9 ..
1918 72 72 ..
1919 147 145 2
1919 147 145 2
1920 125 123 2
1928 6 .. 6
1929 58 58 ..
1930 6 6 ..

See also

References

  1. ^ "The Mines of Gwennap - Poldice Mine". Cornwall in Focus. Archived from the original on 28 January 2010. Retrieved 29 July 2009.
  2. ^ "Occasional Notes". The Cornishman. No. 491. 1 December 1887. p. 4.
  3. ^ Hancock, Peter (2008). The Mining Heritage of Cornwall and West Devon. Wellington, Somerset: Halsgrove. pp. 64–65. ISBN 978-1-84114-753-6.
  4. ^ "Great County Adit Cornwall". Cornwall Calling. Retrieved 29 July 2009.
  5. ^ Barton 1966, p. 41
  6. ^ Barton 1966, p. 102
  7. ^ Barton 1966, pp. 65–66
  8. ^ Barton 1966, p. 71
  9. ^ "Poldice Mine (arsenic works)". The Trevithick Society. Archived from the original on 9 August 2009. Retrieved 30 July 2009.
  10. ^ 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.
  • Poldice Valley, Bob Acton, Landfall Publications, 1990.

Sources

  • Barton, D. B. (1966). The Cornish Beam Engine (New ed.). Truro: D. Bradford Barton Ltd.