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Summary

The upper dressing floor of the 1861 Bosigran stamps is very well preserved.

Protected Status: None recorded

Other References/Statuses

• Cornwall SURVEY NAME (temporary): NT 94497,CCRA 83-110
• Primary Record No. (1985-2009): 33247.04

Monument Type(s):

• TIN MILL (19th Century - 1801 AD to 1900 AD)

Full description

The upper dressing floor of the 1861 Bosigran stamps is very well preserved. It was planned at 1:2500 by the OS in 1876 (b2) and by the National Trust at 1:200 in 1982 (h1, b4-6) and was visited by Herring in 1986 (h2, b7). The dressing floor is arranged on a number of platforms, some of them revetted, running downhill from south to north. The upper platform contains two round convex buddles, probably the "new patent Borlase's round buddles" of 1861 (b3). They are approx 5.4m in diameter with stone lined rims, concreted floors and concreted central cones 1.4m in diameter. A roofed building, shaped like an L, was in the south west corner of this upper floor. Its southern and western walls were the high revetments edging the floor. The stamps themselves (33247) would have been in the south east corner of this floor, immediately to the west of the waterwheel (33247.01). Three rectangular settling tanks are in the north-east corner of the upper platform. On the next platform down to the north there is a third round convex buddle, approx 4.6m diameter, not recorded on the 1st Edition 1:2500 OS map of 1876 and possibly of the later C19 or early C20 when the stamps were intermittently used (b7). A stone lined drain brings slurry onto and through this platform from the higher south one. Three sub-circular settling tanks are in the north-east of this platform and there are more rectilinear tanks immediately to their north. The calciner (33247.7) is to the north-west. To the north of the calciner a number of ruined buildings originally associated with the grist mill (30705) were apparently reused as settling tanks (see b2).

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Site history:
1: 1982. THACKRAY, D / NT
2: 1986. HERRING, PC / CAU
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<1> Spargo, T, 1865, The Mines of Cornwall (Bibliographic reference). SCO4470.

<2> Ordnance Survey, 1880s, 1st Edition 1:2500 Map (Cartographic materials). SCO4048.

<3> Noall, C, 1982, St Ives Mining District, 107 (Bibliographic reference). SCO3994.

<4> Cornwall Archaeological Unit, Field Drawing (GRE), GRE 2128, 42, 43, 51, 75 (Cartographic materials). SCO5089.

<5> Cornwall Archaeological Unit, 198-, Drawing Archive, Hanging (GRH), GRH 241-4 (Cartographic materials). SCO5088.

<6> CAU, 1984, Field Survey Context Card, 79-118 (Bibliographic reference). SCO5175.

<7> Herring, PC, 1987, Bosigran, Zennor, 52, 141-148 & FIGS 35-39 (Bibliographic reference). SCO3569.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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