Diverse landscapes and great houses

The largest of the ten Areas, Tregonning and Gwinear contains diverse landscapes ranging from the idyllic pastoral charms of the rural farmland in the west of the Area to the atmospheric cliffscapes at Rinsey, with silent woods, exposed hills and subtropical gardens in between

Two great houses and their estates – Godolphin and Trevarno - provide a valuable insight into the wealth of some of Cornwall’s most successful industrialists and mine owners.

To the south of the Area, two of the best known undersea mines – Wheal Trewavas and Wheal Prosper – offer a unique glimpse into how treacherous mining could be. Trewavas, which seems to burst out of the cliff edge, is particularly inspiring and, together with its neighbour Wheal Prosper, which sits a little further along the cliff, has now been conserved. 

Many other reminders of the Area’s mining history can be found here, from the terraces of minerworkers’ cottages in villages such as Praze-an-Beeble and Leedstown, to the vast number of mine shafts dotted through the countryside. The Area is also thought to have seen the installation of one of the world’s earliest practical steam pumping engines at Wheal Vor, in around 1710.