The Belowda Beacon Clayworkillgs Two Forgotten Pits John Tonkin

The Belowda Beacon Clayworkillgs Two Forgotten Pits John Tonkin Parish: Roche Mineral Lord: Viscount Falmouth Ordnance Survey Sheets, 1/2500: xxxiii-14 (1880 & 1905) or SW9662-9762 (1977) Belovely Pit: was working by 1856 & the equipment was sold off in 1877 @ N.G. co-ords: 196725E, 062700 N. BeJowda Pit: was looked at in 1906, started by 1912 & closed in 1924 @ N.G. co-ords: 196750E, 062600 N. Introduction: In the years before the Second World War, the older people in the district used to call the little hamlet that nestles under Belowda Beacon, just where the ground begins to rise off the Goss Moor towards the summit, "Belovely village." Originally this was a mining settlement sited mid-way along the wide, north-dipping, stanniferous elvan which outcrops from Brynn Mine in the East to Old Castle-an-Dinas and Black Acre. It has been traced for over three miles and was notable for yielding pseudomorphs of cassiterite after felspar and for the amount of minute topazes found in the stamped sand. On the southern flank, but near the crest of the ridge, still stands the beam engine house belonging to Belowda Beacon Mine. Looking for tin, this explored a couple of quartz tourmaline lodes that carried some cassiterite, a little wolfram and were famous for yielding some fine pseudomorphs of both cassiterite and tourmaline after felspar. Much of the schorl was extremely course. The country rock is mostly granite, none of which could be described as "fresh". The area was scratched over, off and on, for many years, notably by the East Cornwall Mining Association between 1833 and 1842 1 mostly by open cuts. The tin boom of the early 1870s stimulated the first vigorous mining but, by the time that Belowda got going in 1872, the best was over. Active mining occurred intermittently between 1872 and 1902. 2 Dines remarked that the workings did not exceed 200ft. in depth which suggests that they ceased sinking when they started to get heavy inflows of water from the killas under the Goss Moor. A feeble attempt to restart the property occurred between 1909 and mid-1911, the significance of this being that the company involved was known as "The Belowda Tin & China Clay Mines Co." of which, more later. 3 Just over the brow from the old beam engine house, on the eastern (right hand) side of the road to Tregonetha, lie the china clay workings. All that remains today are two little water-filled bottoms, some low tramming burrows and the gaunt shell of the main 2 building of the last working with slight industrial debris scattered close to it. To avoid confusion between the two clay pits, it is proposed to reserve the use of the name Belovely Clayworks for the northern bottoms and to call the southern pit, Belowda. Although the names seem to have been somewhat interchangeable, this complies most closely to the general usage. Belovely China Clay-works, the 19th Century working Very little has been published concerning the earliest workings for china clay on Belowda Beacon, so that an attempt is here made to extract the maximum amount of information from what is available. According to Josh Billings, "It ain't what you don't know that makes you a fool; 'tis what you do know, that ain't so." Josh was probably right, and that means that attempting to make five from two and two is fraught with danger for any researcher. It will be important to remember exactly what is recorded and what is deduced. Belovely gets mentioned in Hunt's annual "Mineral Statistics" a number of times; the Royal Cornwall Gazette notices it; it is recorded on the appropriate Ordnance Survey sheets and other sources are being sought. Mineral Statistics first notices individual china clay works in its 1858 volume. Belovely appears in the listing with Viscount Falmouth as the freeholder and Collins & Co., as the tenant, producing a "bleaching" grade of clay at an estimated production rate of 600t.p.a.; 'Newquay' is recorded under the heading of "nearest railway station or port... Clayworks are then ignored until the 1868 issue of the Statistics, but they are noticed more or less every year thereafter. Belovely is still there, appearing in the listings from 1868 through to 1874 but not for any subsequent year. No production figures are quoted and the"station or port" becomes Par with the same mineral lord and tenant throughout. In 1877 the Royal Cornwall Gazette carried a notice of the pending auction of materials on "Belowda Clay Works, Roche, Cornwall." (Actually the Belovely operation).4 One authority on clayworks history has claimed that J.H. Collins opened Belovely in 1856 and that 600 tons was his best annual production. Imperfect kaolinization, resulting in a high mica content, caused him to abandon it in 1865. At least some of this requires amendment. 5 The vendors in 1877 hoped to sell the works as a going concern and with its last reporting to the government record keepers for the year 1874, it seems probable that it ceased working during, or just before, 1876 with, perhaps, twenty years of productive life. Such a figure would not be at odd's with the present "hole in the downs" left behind. The survey carried out by the Ordnance Survey team in 1880, although the pit is not marked as "disused," could be reconciled with the foregoing. Most of the remains of the working of Belovely have been obliterated by the dumps from the 20th century enterprise or by recent land reclamation by local farmers. However, by combining the survey record with site details and interviews, much can be deduced concerning this first working for china clay on Belowda Beacon. It is highly likely that the kaolin potential of the area was first realized as a result of the opening up of the ground in the search for, and exploitation of, the local tin and wolfram deposits. Once this potential had been recognized, the most productive location and its extent would have been delineated by "pitting for clay." Pits up to about 4ft. square, would be sunk through the overburden and into the kaolinized granite below. Some would not have gone more than a fathom or two into the clay ground; just sufficient to establish 3 NOJ\f38 \fOMOl38 NO S>1tI0M )..VlJ VNIHJ 3Hl U()~IO""lIn') JOj p~JDal:;l .(lIU<I')<lJ D-IlJO Ud -"'QMQ138 \ its pre~ence and to provide samples for the estimation of probable recovery rates and to show suitability to satisfy potential markets. Others would have been sunk for perhaps five, ten or even twenty fathoms to ensure continuity in depth. From the configuration of the abandoned workings in the area, it would appear that an elongated run ot ground, a couple of hundred feet wide, at least 600ft. long and oriented about north-south, was of commercial potential. The next operation would have been to uncover enough clay ground to allow production to start. With the hillside falling to the north, a start was made at the northern end of the interesting ground with a view to working what the 'old men' termed a "lobby," into the hillside. With the deposit having been completely worked out to the edge of the stripped area, and the pit sides having had a century in which to weather, overburden depth is not now readily apparent but, almost certainly, it would not have exceeded two or three feet. Any peat that might have accumulated on the Beacon in prehistoric times would have been used for fuel centuries before Messrs Collins & Co. arrived on the scene. Subsequently, turf would have been cut regularly from the area, this accounting for the extremely thin soils on all the local downs. (6) (7) In the early years, waste was trammed out to the north but, eventually, a small dump was pulled out on the south east corner. Looking at the scant evidence that survives, this is likely to have been burden from the south end. At this site, water for washing the matrix is likely to have been one of the company's most pressing problems. The abandoned pit and dumps are hemmed-in tightly by cultivated land, leaving the 1880 O.S. map as the chief clue to how the property was worked. Some run-off appears to have been impounded to the south of the pit with residues apparently beached about 300 yards to the west of the workings; with only 13 fathoms of flat roofs offered in the closing sale, it seems unlikely that any water was recovered from that source. Water decanted from the kiln tanks would have been available and some water might have been available from mining activity a couple of hundred yards to the south, but this clay working mostly preceeded significant mining effort as far as is known. Given the less than ample water supply, washing of matrix was almost certainly seasonal, with every likelihood that the men that broke clay in the bottoms also dried clay and shipped it as the necessity arose. On the south east rim of the pit there is some slight indication that the matrix was wet mined in the traditional manner at this pit. Although this is by no means certain, it seems to be most likely. The pit, after its abandonment, remained dry so that the pumping required was only to lift the wash to the circle-head of the micas. Pumping and winding was accomplished by a 12" horizontal engine steamed off a single boiler.

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