Wendron mines and sites

Basset & Grylls Mine (also known as Porkellis United). The pumping engine house at Tyacke’s Shaft was built following the tragic flooding of an older section of the mine when water and fine-grained tin ‘slimes’ collapsed into the workings.

Porkellis chapels (1814 Listed Grade II, 1866 Listed Grade II*). The early nineteenth century chapel at Porkellis was converted into a schoolroom when the larger 1866 chapel was built alongside, using dressed granite from a demolished engine house. It has hardly been modified since its construction, which is rare, and it contains a central row of box pews with rows of benches on each side which were the free seats.

Porkellis Moor. Mining here was in granite ‘country’, relatively shallow and principally for tin. It was mostly restricted to the area around Porkellis and Wendron. There is good evidence for alluvial tin mining in the valley basins. Flooded pits (hatches), industrial watercourses (leats) and waterwheel pits are prominent features.

Wheal Ann is one of the two landmark engine houses of Trumpet Consols. Together they establish the mining landscape when entering the district from Helston to the south-west.

The engine house at Wheal Ann, constructed during the early nineteenth century, may have contained a modified Watt engine. It is unusual too because of the light construction of the bob wall which confirms the use of a wooden beam or ‘bob’. Cast iron bobs were ubiquitous during the remainder of the nineteenth century, so this would have been amongst the last in Cornwall of its kind.

'Poldark Mine’. Former eighteenth century underground workings have been made accessible to the public at a tin mine formally known as Wheal Roots. The site, named after the popular novels and television series, also contains the Greensplatt beam engine re-sited from the china-clay district.