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Summary - not yet available

Protected Status

• Conservation Area: MINIONS

Other References/Statuses

• Cornwall PROJECT ID: WH
• Primary Record No. (1985-2009): 162320
• SHINE Candidate (Yes)

Monument Type(s):

• MINE (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)

Full description

Also occasionally wrongly referred to as West Craddock Moor, Wheal Cheesewring, and (locally) as Silver Valley Mine, this is probably one of the most enigmatic sites in the entire project area, about whose working little or nothing has been discovered. Despite the early appearance of the site, the mine is not shown on the OS 1880, suggesting that this working dates from the late years of the 19th century. There is no record of output under the name West Craddock Moor, and the only mention of New Phoenix is indicated for Altarnun parish (b1).

The name Silver Valley seems to have been attached to a number of sites in this area, probably originating in an early name for part of Trewalla North (14048) or Witheybrook South (14042) streamworks. Barton mentions a re-working of the Grace Dieu and Prosper lodes c1911-12 on a cross-cut adit, but the NGR given (SX 2550 7135) for this, and the surface remains at New Phoenix suggest that the reference relates to a small site to the north where lodes formerly worked at surface were retried shortly before and during the 1939-45 war (14060) (b2). It seems likely that Burt's entry for New Phoenix conflates two mines, and that the entries relating to a tin mine working from 1884 to 1888, 1889-91, and employing up to 72 men are probably relevant to this mine, whilst the entries for a manganese mine working 1887-90 are probably a seperate site (b1).

Site surveyed by Sharpe in 1987 (b3). Near Trewalla North streamwork, and centred at SX 253 712 is a compact and apparently rather undeveloped site comprising a small engine-house and boiler-house, boiler-pond and leats apparently set up to work material brought by an incline from the nearby lode-back workings at the edge of the north-heading section of the streamwork.

The engine house is constructed of random granite, with substantial granite quoins. It measures 11.0m x 5.6m, up to 5.4m high, and has a small boiler house (13m x 6m x 1.3m high) attached to its offside (south-west), with an extension on that side. The stack is attached to the south corner of the engine house. An examination of the internal arrangements of the engine-house suggests that an indoor-beam rotary engine was housed here, working stamps to the Northeast. There is clear evidence of a flywheel pit aligned down the inside face of the northeast wall, whilst outside, the fragmentary remains of a raised, stone-faced platform stand next to the wall. At approximately right-angles to the line of the wall, and in line with the probable stamps-plat, a narrow (0.5m wide) ramp slopes down into one of the large flooded hollows on a line of lode back workings (SX 2534 7130).

Downslope from the probable stamps site, a pair of 2.0m diameter convex-centred buddles sit in a shallow stone-lined rectangular hollow (7m x 4m). The outflow from these is drained to a pair of large ponds (in total 14m x 5 m), presumably for settling slimes. There is another possible buddle on the downslope side of these ponds. To the northwest of the engine house, a small (6.5m sq) boiler pond is joined to the house site by a leat, whilst the remains of three co-joined stone buildings to the west of the site (2.4m x 2.4m; 2.4m x 1.8m; 2.4m x 1.2m) would have been the office and stores. The only waste on this site comprises a dump apparently of stamped sands to the south of the engine house. A leat appearing next to the sand dump and visible over the hillside towards the enclosed fields of Trewalla Farm (SX 2455 7107), although initially thought to be a water supply for the mine, on survey proved to have run from the streamworks and falls very gently to the west.

A number of boundary stones can be found on the moorland surrounding the mine. These are inscribed 'NP', presumably for New Phoenix. Two modern memorial stones in the east bank of this excavation reputedly mark the sites of the internments of cremated human remains.

The isolated position of the structures here have probably saved them from much of the stone-robbing and wanton demolition that have affected so many of the other sites in the area. Nevertheless, the engine-house is becoming increasingly derelict as former timber lintels have rotted away, and whilst most of the structure still remains standing, the rear and nearside walls in particular are approaching collapse. The North corner has mysteriously lost its bottom quoin, and is becoming unstable, whilst rubble from those parts of the walls that have already fallen obscures much of the internal detail of the house. Aerial photographs taken in 1952 and 1953 (see b3 for reference) of the site document the relatively recent deterioration of the structure.

The ancillary buildings are partially obscured by the rubble of their collapse. If there were a shaft, it must lie in the base of the flooded lode back working, and is inaccessible. The site stands amongst heathy moorland, and the bracken-covered dumps and gullies of the lode back workings and streamwork. The area is in Commons which are grazed on an occasional basis by cattle, horses and sheep, keeping the grasses and other moorland vegetation short. No specific path leads to the site, but approaches are usually made from the ford near Trewalla Farm (SX 2523 7093) up what may originally have been the mine access road, and from the Hurlers and Silver Valley Mine to the east through a gap in the streamwork.

The engine house, despite being rather squat, is an unusual structure, and a prominent landscape feature to the north of the Dobwalls-Minions road. It is at present not Listed, unlike most of the other standing engine houses in the area, and this should be rectified if the structure or the area in which it stands is not to be Scheduled in the near future. Emergency work should be undertaken at the earliest opportunity to underpin the corner with the missing quoin. At a later date, the house would benefit considerably from the clearance of all the internal and external rubble (under archaeological supervision) and the consolidation of the remains (this would take the usual form of pointing, wall capping and stabilisation of unstable stone). The ancillary buildings could easily be consolidated at the same time. The clearance of accumulated deposits from the buddles, and the removal of rubble obscuring the stamps plat would allow the visitor to make more sense of the site. The present grazing regime is beneficial to the site, and should be continued. The site should be included in any guide to the area, but some further research will probably be necessary before the history of these remains becomes clear.

<1> Burt, R, Waite, P & Burnley, R, 1987, Cornish Mines: Metalliferous and Associated Minerals, 1845-1913, 363 (Bibliographic reference). SCO2974.

<2> Barton, DB, 1967, A History of Tin Mining and Smelting in Cornwall, 242, 283 (Bibliographic reference). SCO2786.

<3> Sharpe, A, 1989, The Minions Survey, 120-122 (Bibliographic reference). SCO4378.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• ECO1489 - Cornish Mining World Heritage Site Bid
• ECO1781 - CM World Heritage Bid: Devon Great Consols
• ECO2465 - Cornish Mining World Heritage Site Bid
• ECO2466 - Cornish Mining World Heritage Site

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