Great Wheal Fortune, Wheal Vor Mine and Trevarno House
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The most extensive
example of open-cast tin mining within the nominated Site survives
at Great Wheal Fortune. Developed on a network of tin bearing veinlets (‘stockwork’) known as the Conqueror Branches, its two
‘quarries’ retain considerable geological and mineralogical
significance. They are also valuable conservation sites. |
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Wheal Vor (Wheal Metal, Listed Grade II). Wheal
Vor was an ancient mine associated with the Godolphin family and
was the site of the first Newcomen engine in Cornwall, installed
during the second decade of the eighteenth century. It was the
richest tin mine in Cornwall at its peak in the 1830s: It employed
1,100 persons and was one of the few mines to possess its own
smelter.
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Tregurtha Downs Mine (1882, Listed Grade II), Goldsithney. The massive engine house at St Aubyn’s Shaft
contained an 80-inch pumping engine that had a working life not
untypical for Cornish engines: The engine was originally
commissioned from the Copperhouse Foundry (Hayle) in 1853 for
Great Wheal Alfred in Gwinear. It was subsequently moved to nearby
Crenver and Wheal Abraham in 1864 and then to Tregurtha Downs in
1882 where it worked until 1897. It was purchased by South Crofty
Mine in 1902 and erected at Robinson’s Shaft. The engine is now in
the care of the National Trust.
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Trevarno House. Formerly the home of the Wallis
mining family, Trevarno later became the home of the
Bickford-Smiths (safety-fuse manufacturers).
Link to the Trevarno Estate website -
http://www.trevarno.co.uk/index.htm
Trevarno was awarded Silver Winner in the South West Tourism
Excellence Awards 2006 - 2007 in the Large Visitor Attraction of
the Year.
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