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Summary

A tin mine of considerable antiquity, documented operations date back to around 1770 but an adit on the mine had been driven before 1740.

Protected Status

• Conservation Area: PENDEEN

Other References/Statuses

• Cornwall PROJECT ID: IN
• National Mapping Programme (Morph No.): 285.9.1
• Primary Record No. (1985-2009): 42731
• SMR No. (OS Quarter-sheet and SMR No.): SW33SE 41

Monument Type(s):

• MINE (Edwardian to Early 20th Century - 1907 AD to 1912 AD)

Full description

A tin mine of considerable antiquity, documented operations date back to around 1770 but an adit on the mine had been driven before 1740. Symons shows engine houses, stamps and ore floors (b1) and old shafts are marked on the OS map of 1963 (b2). Shares advertised for sale by auction in 1813 and in 1815 a Boulton and Watt engine was offered for private sale, reflecting the problems with ground water. Phase of working that commenced in the early 1820s lasted until about 1857 and included the setts of Huel Zendra SW 383 342 (162193), Huel Paul (162191) and The Bell (162195). It also worked as Trewellard Mine (b1, b6, (b9, b7, b10). Machinery included 27'' pumping engine, 2 steam whims, 12'' stamps' engine and 2 large water wheels.
1857 Boscaswell Downs (42745) restarted with a 36'' pumping engine added, but financial problems dogged the mine and in 1866 it was offered for sale. In the following working an overhead cableway was installed to connect outlying shafts to the dressing floors. Old cost book company was wound up in 1872 and the mine restarted as Boscaswell Downs Tin and Copper Mining Association (b11). A rich copper lode was found but financial mismanagement saw the mine close within two years. 1874 saw a limited working of the Treweek's section of the mine by some return miners from Colorado under the name Were Rod and Bullwhacker(b3). The mine was retired in 1907 as Boscaswell United Tin and Copper Mine Ltd., working the former setts of North Boscaswell (42687), Pendeen Consols (42686), Trease (162189), Boscaswell Downs (42745), Calartha Common, Calartha Farm (162196), Portheras (162198) and Wheal Caroline (162192). Mine thrown into the Stannary Court for financial mismanagement before WW1. Sett eventually acquired by Geevor (b4, b5).
Surveyed by Sharpe in 1992 (b4). Boscaswell United seems always to have been centred round Engine Shaft at SW 3836 3441. This was almost certainly the site of the 36" Boulton and Watt engine erected before 1815 and the 27" pumping engine that was at work in 1837. The present engine house is that erected for the 34" pumping engine for sale in 1853, and was probably re-used for the 36" engine started in 1859 and for sale in 1874. The house has some archaic features - in particular the squat flat-arched plug door opening and the stepped bob wall. Although Brown (1991) considers that it was probably built for the 34" engine, in style it is similar to engine houses on the Consols sett constructed in the mid-1920's by John Taylor, and to Harvey's 1935 engine at Levant, and may be the house for the 1830's 27" engine adapted for a larger engine. Parts of this engine house have collapsed and have been re-built as a lean-to shed to the house next door, of which the engine house forms an end wall. The shaft has been capped in concrete (to what standard is unknown) and lies beneath flower beds.
A whim engine house stood a little way to the west (SW 3834 3441), probably working to Boxer's Shaft at SW 3835 3444. The engine house has been reduced to plinth level, and has become very overgrown with vegetation, although its loadings can still be seen. The shaft site has probably now been built over, but might lie in gardens just to the north.
A further whim engine house stood at SW 3827 3453 working Steam Whim Shaft at SW 3831 3450. The engine house has been destroyed. A stump of a small chimney and scraps of attached masonry at SW 3818 3447 are not part of this engine house, but may be part of another small engine house. The shaft could not be inspected, thus its condition is unknown. This area has suffered disturbance associated with dump removal, however, and the shaft may now be choked, though is unlikely to have been capped. A large pond just off Leat Road at SW 3840 3455, now partly reinstated, probably collected water pumped from the mine which was subsequently fed by leats to the dressing floors to the north (centred at SW 3836 3461, and shown by Symons in 1857, nothing remains of these features), later to the floors and tanks near Calartha. Some of the buildings on the east side of the road leading from Boscaswell to Calartha may have originally been built for the mine. Brown notes the site of a possible compressor house at SW 3835 3441, but there appears now to be nothing to see at this site (1991).
To the south of the St.Just-Morvah road there were shafts at SW 3838 3437, SW 3844 3433, SW 3847 3428 (Kevern's, William's or Smith's Shaft. This latter had a horse whim in 1863 (Noall, 1973, 42). This area has now been built over, and almost all trace of the shafts has disappeared. Further along the lode, there were shafts at SW 3849 3423, SW 3855 3419 (Eddy's or Boyn's Shaft, worked by a 20" whim engine in 1853. The shaft has been filled, and all that remains is the truncated chimney stack of the engine house), SW 3859 3416 and SW 3860 3414 (Richard's Shaft - shown by the OS in 1877 as a double shaft within a single rectangular collar). Other shafts to the south-east are described and located under Wheal Powle.
To the west of Engine Shaft three shaft sites can be located in what is now pasture - at SW 3818 3440, SW 3818 3445 and SW 3817 3450. To the north, there are indications of a shaft at SW 3833 3456, whilst Lowry's or Guide Shaft was at SW 3821 3460, an un-named shaft was at SW 3820 3463. With the exception of the first site, where a disturbed spoil dump survives, there is nothing to see at surface in this area of improved fields.
Treweek's Shaft is at SW 3815 3470. This shaft has been re-worked on a number of occasions, most recently by Geevor Plc. All evidence for earlier working periods was cleared away with the establishment of a winding shaft on this site in the 1960's, when it was widened, straightened, timbered and re-equipped to the 15 level. It was used for both man-riding and materials, and was the main access to the Treweek's section of the mine. A winding engine was erected here - initially a 20hp portable in a wooden house, later replaced by an electric winder in a concrete-built house. Around the yard were other buildings to house the compressor, etc. The machinery and fittings in these buildings have now been recovered for sale or scrap.
There is no trace of the early dressing floors to the north of engine shaft now survive. The whole of the area in which they stood has been improved. In later phases of working, ore dressing was also carried out on the former Pendeen Consols floors at SW 380 353 (see Pendeen), whilst during the period when this part of Boscaswell United was worked with Geevor, ore was raised through Victory plotted as part of the NMP.

<1> Symons, R, 1857, Map of the St Just Mining District (Bibliographic reference). SCO4522.

PMB, 1973, FSL/7330/1/147+8 (Photographic Record). SCO15727.

RAF, 1951, 540/518/4199 (Photographic Record). SCO13297.

<2> Ordnance Survey, 1970s, 1:10,000 OS Map (Cartographic materials). SCO4045.

<3> Noall, C, 1973, The St Just Mining District, Monograph on Mining History No 5, 53 (Bibliographic reference). SCO3998.

<4> Sharpe, A, 1992, St Just, an Archaeological Survey of the Mining District Vol 2, 32-34 (Bibliographic reference). SCO4373.

<5> Dines, HG, 1956, The Metalliferous Mining Region of South-West England, 90-91 (Bibliographic reference). SCO3217.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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