Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey

Historic characterisation for regeneration

CAMBORNE

HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT SERVICE

Objective One is part-funded by the European Union

Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey

Historic characterisation for regeneration

Camborne

Kate Newell

June 2004

HES REPORT NO. 2004R040

Historic Environment Service, Planning Transportation and Estates, Cornwall County Council Kennall Building, Old County Hall, Station Road, Truro, Cornwall, TR1 3AY tel (01872) 323603 fax (01872) 323811 E-mail [email protected]

Acknowledgements This report was produced as part of the Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey project (CSUS), funded by English Heritage, Objective One Partnership for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (European Regional Development Fund) and the South West Regional Development Agency (South West RDA). Peter Beacham (Head of Designation), Graham Fairclough (Head of Characterisation), Roger M Thomas (Head of Urban Archaeology), Jill Guthrie (Designation Team Leader, South West) and Ian Morrison (Ancient Monuments Inspector for Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly) liaised with the project team for English Heritage and provided valuable advice, guidance and support. Nick Cahill (The Cahill Partnership) acted as Conservation Advisor to the project, providing support with the characterisation methodology and advice on the interpretation of individual settlements. Georgina McLaren (Cornwall Enterprise) performed an equally significant advisory role on all aspects of economic regeneration. Valuable help has been given by Andrew Richards (Conservation Officer, Kerrier District Council), Maxine Hardy (Community Regeneration Officer Camborne Area, Tin Country Partnership, IAP), John Dobson (in his then role as Camborne – Pool – Redruth Principal Regeneration Manager Objective 1, South West RDA) and Tim Kellet, Steven Havers and David Slatter (Camborne Pool Redruth Urban Regeneration Company Ltd). The Urban Survey team, within Cornwall County Council Historic Environment Service, is Kate Newell and Stephanie Russell (Urban Survey Officers, Stef Russell to June 2003), Dr Steve Mills (Archaeological GIS Mapper; to July 2003) and Graeme Kirkham (Project Manager). Bryn Perry-Tapper is the GIS/SMBR supervisor and has played an important role in developing the GIS, SMBR and internet components of the CSUS. Jeanette Ratcliffe was the initial Project Co-ordinator, succeeded by Peter Herring from Spring 2003. This report builds on the work of the Cornwall Industrial Settlements Initiative (CISI), a project with the aims of obtaining an overview of the history, present character and significance of Cornwall’s industrial settlements. Camborne was studied for CISI by the Cahill Partnership for Cornwall Archaeological Unit in the summer of 2000 (final report April 2002). The CSUS methodology seeks to explore the link between characterisation and identifying heritage-led regeneration opportunities in order to promote sustainable urban regeneration. The project is grateful to Charles Winpenny for permission to reproduce digital images from his Cornwall CAM website (www.cornwallcam.co.uk). Other photographs are by the report author and the Historic Environment Service, CCC. Maps The maps in this publication are based on Ordnance Survey material with the permission of the Ordnance Survey on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office (c) Crown copyright. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown copyright and may lead to prosecution and/or civil proceedings. The map data, derived from Ordnance Survey mapping, included within this publication is provided by Cornwall County Council under licence from the Ordnance Survey in order to fulfil its public function to publicise local public services. Persons viewing this mapping should contact Ordnance Survey copyright for advice where they wish to licence Ordnance Survey mapping for their own use. Cornwall County Council Licence No. 100019590.

Cover illustration Camborne town centre: the radial roads of the pre-urban settlement converge on the church and market with surrounding nineteenth-century grid development, 2001(CCC Historic Environment Service, ACS 5411).

© Cornwall County Council 2004 No part of this document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission of the publisher.

Contents

Contents i Summary 1 1 Introduction 4 2 Camborne: the context 7 The regeneration context 7 Landscape and setting 10 Historic environment designations 11 3 Historic development 12 Early origins 12 Medieval church town 12 Market town 13 Heart of Cornish mining 13 ‘A growing rival to Redruth’ 14 Copper to tin 16 Decline of Cornish mining 17 The twentieth century 18 Into the twenty-first century 19 4 Archaeological potential 20 5 Statement of significance, Camborne 22 6 Present settlement character 23 Topography and settlement form 23 Standing historic fabric 24 Streetscapes and views 27 Identifying Character Areas 29 7 Regeneration and management 30 Character-based principles for regeneration 30 Regeneration and the historic environment: key themes for Camborne 31 8 Character Areas 37 Technical Appendix: GIS metadata information, definitions, explanations and suggestions for use 59 Sources 66

i

Figures (bound at back of report) 1. Location and topography 2. OS 2nd edition 1:2500 (1908) 3. Historical development 4. Historic settlement topography 5. Surviving historic components 6. Urban archaeological potential 7. Character Areas Character Area summary sheets 1 – 5

Abbreviations CAU Cornwall Archaeological Unit CCC Cornwall County Council CISI Cornwall Industrial Settlements Initiative CPR Camborne Pool Redruth Cornish mining WHS Cornish Mining World Heritage Site Bid CSUS Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey DCMS Department for Culture, Media and Sport DTLR Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions EH English Heritage ERDF European Regional Development Fund ESRI Environmental Systems Research Institute GIS Geographical Information Systems HES Historic Environment Service HLC Historic Landscape Characterisation HLF Heritage Lottery Fund KDC Kerrier District Council LOTS Living Over The Shop scheme South West RDA South West of England Regional Development Agency SMBR Sites, monuments and buildings record (held and maintained by the HES) THI Townscape Heritage Initiative (a heritage-led regeneration funding package of the Heritage Lottery Fund) UFP Urban Framework Plan (developed by the URC) URC Urban Regeneration Company

ii Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

Summary also play a crucial role in the proposed Cornish Mining World Heritage Site. Historical development Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne functioned through most of The Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey is its history as a local church town, a a pioneering initiative aimed at hamlet sized settlement serving farming harnessing the quality and distinctive settlements scattered through the parish. character of the historic environment to successful and sustainable regeneration. By the seventeenth century the town had The Survey is investigating 19 historic become a service and market town, towns and creating for each an acquiring formal market and fair rights as information base, character assessment late as 1708. This increase in commercial which will contribute positively to activity was connected with local tin regeneration planning. In heritage-led streaming and shallow tin mining, first regeneration opportunities for the towns recorded here from the 1400s, and adit are highlighted. The project is based mining first recorded by the sixteenth within Cornwall County Council’s century. Historic Environment Service and It was the early eighteenth century funded by English Heritage, Objective 1 development of the local copper mines and South West RDA. and the subsequent eighteenth and nineteenth-century industrialisation of tin Camborne and copper mining that transformed the Camborne is an important market and surrounding area into Cornwall’s industrial town in west Cornwall. principal industrial centre and set the Together with the neighbouring town on a new development trajectory. settlements of Redruth and Pool it forms During the nineteenth century Camborne the largest urban conurbation in became Cornwall’s most industrialised Cornwall. Mining history dominates both town, expanding rapidly to house both the fabric of the place and the culture of the ever expanding workforce and the the people. associated industrial processes, such as the internationally important Holman The visible regeneration of the town has drill works. already begun with the successful completion of a phase 1 Town Centre With this expansion the town was quickly Improvement programme, providing urbanised, becoming a rival to the earlier public realm works, traffic management established town of Redruth. The and the creation of a formal public numerous impressive late nineteenth- square off Trelowarren Street. An Urban century civic, religious and commercial Regeneration Company (URC) has been buildings are testimony to the success of formed to regenerate the Camborne Pool this period. Redruth conurbation and is set to have a However, with the decline in Cornish dramatic effect on the area. Currently mining the economic success of the town there are a number of major proposals weakened. The CompAir Holman works targeting important sites within and close has recently closed, although another to Camborne’s historic core, including a engineering firm is reusing part of the number of prioritised sites identified by site. the URC, a proposed Townscape Heritage Initiative and a second phase of Historic settlement character the public realm-based Town Centre Camborne’s history and geographical Improvements Scheme. The town will location has created a town with a strong,

April 2004 1 Summary Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne locally distinctive character. Major • Reinstate character and quality in the elements of this include the following. built environment and public realm • The subtle topography of the town where it has been eroded by inappropriate past interventions. provides generally level streets, an unusual feature in Cornish towns. The • Present, interpret and promote nineteenth-century expansion of the Camborne as an historic Cornish town town disguises the promontory spur of quality, character and significance. on which the church is set which would have been an important Regeneration and the historic landscape feature in the pre-urban environment: key themes for setting. Camborne • The settlement form of the town • Redefine Camborne distinguishes the earlier church town • Present and promote by asserting core with its radiating road pattern Camborne’s historic significance and gently sinuous lines from the grid • Understand the historic environment form of the nineteenth-century asset residential expansion. • Maintain and promote diversity • The built environment of the town is • Respect character dominated by the distinctive terraced • Integrate conservation approaches to rows of stone-built, low-rise industrial regeneration – respect historic workers’ cottages. The urban core buildings holds many impressive nineteenth- • Enhance townscape century civic buildings, chapels and • Manage traffic and parking commercial premises. Earlier • Improve connectivity buildings also survive such as Tyack’s • Coordinate change Hotel, an eighteenth-century coaching inn. The town also boasts a surprising number of villas set in salubrious Character Areas and regeneration suburban fringes. opportunities Character-based principles for This study identified five distinct regeneration Character Areas within the historic urban area. Its findings on these areas, together These principles have been derived with an assessment of overall settlement directly from the analysis of the character, offer a means of understanding Character Areas and should underpin all the past and present. In turn, that regeneration initiatives in Camborne. understanding provides the basis for a • Respect the contribution the physical positive approach to planning future topography and natural setting make change which will maintain and reinforce to the unique character of the town. the historic character and individuality of each area – sustainable local • Recognise the quality and distinctive distinctiveness. character of Camborne’s historic built environment, and achieve equally high quality and distinctiveness in all future new build and the public realm.

• Respect the different Character Areas

within the town and acknowledge and reinforce the urban hierarchy and diversity they represent.

April 2004 2 Summary Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

1. Church town and commercial core This is the • Reintegrate the church with the surrounding town. historic heart of the town and its nineteenth-century • Reinstate the primacy of the church town core. commercial and civic core. The church complex, with • Strengthen links between Trelowarren Street and its early stone crosses and the radiating road pattern the surrounding town. meeting in front of the former market house, is a • Ensure shopfront and public realm treatments reminder of the pre-industrial church town. This area is respect and enhance surviving historic features and the most urban part of the town with an impressive character collection of eighteenth-century inns and three storey townhouses. The exuberant nineteenth-century • Enhance gateways and focal points commercial premises (some with surviving shop • Reinstate a sense of place to areas of the townscape fronts), civic and religious buildings are a major asset currently characterised by loss of grain. for the town. • Bus station redevelopment – major brownfield opportunity

2. Industrial workers’ housing The gridded rows and • Respect and celebrate the distinctive character of terraces of industrial workers housing are a dominant the area feature of the town. Set along wide, straight and level • Enhance key approach routes roads the low rising two storey cottages provide low • Ensure the bus station redevelopment respects this enclosure levels compared to other Cornish Character Area as well as the commercial core townscapes. The granite robustness of the buildings is lightened by the restrained use of ornamentation and bright colour to door and window finishes. Long, thin rear gardens are an integral part of this Character Area and an important factor in the nineteenth-century industrialisation and move from country to town, which they document. 3. The industrial legacy Evidence of Camborne’s past • Celebrate the industrial past of the town and take it industrial significance is retained in its townscape. Sites into the town’s future such as Wheal Harriet with its standing engine house • Enhance major gateway points to the town and surrounding former mining land, the Holman No 3 • Sensitively reuse a significant brownfield site – complex and nearby forge and workshop by the railway CompAir Holman Works, Foundry Road station, Stray Park engine house and the former CompAir Holman works tell of this important and successful past that shaped the town we see today. 4. South west villa suburbs To the south west of the • Recognise and enhance the importance and quality urban core there is a suburban area of middle-class of this area as a key approach to the town centre residences. Large villas and genteel residences, set • Respect and celebrate the architectural quality of within bounded grounds but highly visible from the the area road, give the area a salubrious character. Painted • Recognise, respect and enhance the importance of render and classical architectural references are planting in the area common features of the area. Many buildings are architect designed. Planting softens the built environment and the sloping topography of Trevu Road provides interesting views to the town below. 5. Rosewarne A secluded and private, inward-looking • Enhance the car parks as important arrival points area, formerly the house and grounds of Rosewarne • Maintain the estate and parkland character of the and Parc-Bracket houses. Although redeveloped in the area late twentieth century as housing estates, the character • Maintain the allotment fields of the grand house complex is retained due to the survival of key buildings and landscape planting. The mature trees surviving from the former parkland have town-wide impact and importance. The town’s car parks are on land taken from the gardens, including Rosewarne’s walled kitchen garden.

January 2004 3 Summary Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

1 Introduction pride of place which in turn creates a positive and confident climate for investment and growth. This synergy between the historic environment and economic regeneration Regeneration and the was recognised and strongly advocated in historic towns of Cornwall the Power of Place review of policies on the and Scilly historic environment carried out by English Heritage in 2000, and its value clearly highlighted in the government’s In July 1999 Cornwall and the Isles of response, The Historic Environment: A Force Scilly were designated as an Objective 1 for the Future (2001). The tool by which area, bringing potential investment from the two may be linked to create a European funds of more than £300m framework for sustainable development over the nine-year spending period. in historic settlements is characterisation. Economic regeneration schemes and development projects within the region’s towns are likely to form a major element of the Objective 1 Programme. Characterisation and Regeneration on this scale offers an regeneration unparalleled opportunity for contemporary contributions in urban ‘The government . . . wants to see more design and architecture to the built regeneration projects, large and small, going environment of Cornwall and Scilly’s forward on the basis of a clear understanding of towns. At the same time, the Objective 1 the existing historic environment, how this has programme emphasises environmental developed over time and how it can be used sustainability (including the historic creatively to meet contemporary needs.’ environment) and regional distinctiveness (DCMS / DTLR, The Historic as key considerations in regeneration Environment: A Force for the Future planning. The process of change (2001), 5.2) launched by current regeneration initiatives could, if not carefully managed, ‘Characterisation’ provides a means of have a negative impact on the historic understanding the diverse range of environment and the unique character factors which combine to create and sense of place of each of these ‘distinctiveness’ and ‘sense of place’. It settlements. The pressure to achieve involves the creation of a comprehensive rapid change could in itself result in knowledge base on the historic severe erosion and dilution of their environment. This includes what is individuality and particular distinctiveness known of a settlement’s historic and, at worst, their transformation into development and urban topography (that ‘anywhere’ towns. is, the basic components which have contributed to the physical shaping of the It is clear from recent research that a historic settlement, such as market places, high-quality historic urban environment church enclosures, turnpike roads, and the distinctiveness and sense of place railways, etc.), together with an overview integral to it are themselves primary of the surviving historic fabric, distinctive assets in promoting regeneration. The architectural forms, materials and effect may be direct, through heritage treatments and the significant elements tourism, for example, but there is a more of town and streetscapes. powerful and decisive impact in Characterisation may also provide the prompting a strong sense of identity and basis for assessing the potential for

June 2004 4 1: Introduction Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne buried and standing archaeological within the seven district, borough and remains and their likely significance, unitary authorities in the region, as those reducing uncertainty for regeneration which are likely to be the focus for interests by providing an indication of regeneration. The project’s ‘target’ potential constraints. settlements are: Characterisation is also a means whereby Hayle Newlyn the historic environment can itself Penzance St Ives provide an inspirational matrix for regeneration. It emphasises the historic Camborne Helston continuum which provides the context Redruth Falmouth for current change and into which the regeneration measures of the present Penryn Truro must fit if the distinctive and special St Austell Newquay qualities of each historic town are to be maintained and enhanced. It both Bodmin Camelford highlights the ‘tears in the urban fabric’ Launceston Liskeard wrought by a lack of care in the past and Saltash Torpoint offers an indication of appropriate approaches to their repair. Hugh Town (St Mary’s, Isles of Scilly). Characterisation is not intended to encourage or to provide a basis for imitation or pastiche: rather, it offers a CSUS is a pioneering initiative aimed sound basis on which the twenty-first directly at cutting across the boundary century can make its own distinct and that traditionally divides conservation high-quality contribution to places of and economic development. Nationally, abiding value. it is the first such project carrying out a characterisation-based assessment of the historic urban environment specifically to Cornwall and Scilly Urban inform and support a regional economic Survey regeneration programme. Future regeneration initiatives in other historic settlements, both in Cornwall and further The Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey afield, will benefit from the new (CSUS) was set up – funded by English approach developed by the project. Heritage and the Objective One Partnership for Cornwall and Scilly (European Regional Development Fund ERDF) – as a key contributor to CSUS reports regeneration in the region. Additional funding has been provided by the South CSUS reports present the major findings West of England Regional Development and recommendations arising from the Agency. The project is investigating 19 project’s work on each town. They are historic towns and creating for each the complemented by computer-based digital information base and character mapping and data recorded using assessment which will provide a ArcView Geographical Information framework for sustainable action within System (GIS) software, and together the these historic settlements. two sources provide comprehensive These towns have been identified, in information on historic development, consultation with planning, conservation urban topography, significant and economic regeneration officers components of the historic environment,

June 2004 5 1: Introduction Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne archaeological potential and historic additional historical research has been character. undertaken and much of the GIS based mapping has been assimilated from CISI Importantly, the reports also identify produced mapping. The CSUS opportunities for heritage-led methodology provides a more detailed regeneration and positive characterisation of the town and management of the historic additionally identifies opportunities for environment. However, they are not heritage-led regeneration. intended to be prescriptive design guides, but should rather be used by architects, town planners and regeneration officers to inform future Extent of the study area development and planning strategies. The reports and associated digital The history and historic development of resources are shared with the appropriate Camborne has been investigated and local authorities; economic regeneration, mapped for the whole of the study area planning and conservation officers defined by the CISI report. However, the therefore have immediate access to the detailed characterisation and analysis of detailed information generated by the urban topography that together form the project. Additional information is held in primary elements of this study are closely the Cornwall and Scilly Historic focused on the historic urban extent of the Environment Record, maintained by the settlement. For the purposes of this Historic Environment Service of project this area is defined as that which Cornwall County Council (CCC). is recognisably ‘urban’ in character on the second edition Ordnance Survey (OS) Public access to the report and to the Revision 1:2500 map, c1908. Outlying associated mapping is available via the rural settlements that have been project’s website - www.historic- incorporated into the modern urban area cornwall.org.uk - or by appointment at since 1908 are intentionally excluded. the offices of Cornwall County Council’s Historic Environment Service, Old A full technical appendix is included County Hall, Truro. providing full definitions, explanations and suggestions for the use of the information provided in the Cornwall Industrial figure sequence bound at the back of the report. It also provides metadata Settlements Initiative information on the GIS mapping used to create the figures. Camborne has previously been studied as part of the Cornwall Industrial Settlements Initiative (CISI). This Conservation Area Partnership between English Heritage (with the Heritage

Lottery Fund), Cornwall County Council and the District Councils is intended to assess the character and significance of many of the county’s industrial settlements and provides recommendations for conservation based protection and enhancement. The present report builds on the CISI report for Camborne of April 2002. No Camborne town crest June 2004 6 1: Introduction Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

2 Camborne: the context

Camborne is an important market and industrial town in west Cornwall. Together with the neighbouring settlements of Pool and Redruth, the conurbation is the largest urban area in Cornwall with a population of c45, 000. Camborne itself is the largest settlement in the conurbation with a population of c16, 000. The town is particularly noted for its former industrial status, set at the heart of one of the richest mineral areas of the nineteenth- century industrial revolution and retaining engineering expertise. One of Cornwall’s largest industrial towns, this past has led to its distinctive built environment dominated by the linear rows of industrial housing and the late nineteenth-century rebuilding of some of its town centre. Camborne is in Kerrier District Council (KDC) and is situated approximately 6 km east of Redruth and 4 km from the north coast. The town is well served by good communication links, being on the main road through Cornwall (A30) and on the mainline rail route linking Penzance with London Paddington (Fig 1).

Camborne’s historic core from the north west, 2001 (CCC Historic Environment Service, ACS 5401)

The Kerrier Local Plan details policies to The regeneration context promote Camborne as an employment and service centre and also as a focus for Camborne is set to see an unprecedented housing development. The Objective 1 level of regeneration investment in the Single Programming Document identifies coming years, driven forward by the it as a strategically important town in Camborne Pool Redruth Urban Cornwall’s regeneration, defining it as a Regeneration Company and the ‘measure 2.2 employment growth centre’. important role the town will play within In addition the Secretary of State for the proposed Cornish Mining World Transport, Local Government and the Heritage Site. Regions identified the town as a

June 2004 7 2: Camborne: the context Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne significant part of a ‘Principal Regeneration Area’ in Regional Planning Guidance for the South West of September 2001 (RPG10). Consequently the South West Regional Development Agency (South West RDA) considers the area as one of only five key strategic locations for support within the region. The regeneration challenge here is very real. The area is still suffering from the loss of its traditional economic base of engineering and mining and the local Commercial Square regenerated as a formal public square (Photograph: Charles economy is weak. Kerrier was the third Winpenny, Cornwall CAM.) most deprived area in the South West in the 1998 Index of Local Conditions and its earning levels and household incomes are amongst the lowest in the country. This legacy of decline has resulted in the area’s poor image within Cornwall.

The visible regeneration of the town has already begun and a significant amount of positive change has been achieved. Phase 1 of a Town Centre Improvement scheme has been completed. With funding secured from the ERDF (5b programme), South West RDA, KDC Public realm and traffic management improvements to Trelowarren Street and CCC, this £1.15 million scheme (Photograph: Charles Winpenny, Cornwall CAM.) started in 1998 took place over three years and addressed land reclamation works, public realm and highway growing, but there is still much to improvements. As part of this achieve. Commercial Square has been represented In response to the challenges faced as a formal town square and Trelowarren within the Camborne, Pool and Redruth Street has been made one-way with area an Urban Regeneration Company traffic management features and other (URC) has been established to drive public realm improvements. A Shop forward ambitious £150 million Bright scheme was also undertaken investment plans. The URC works with involving the redecoration of retail key delivery partners South West RDA, premises along Trelowarren Street. The English Partnerships, Kerrier District Camborne Regeneration Group has been Council and Cornwall County Council. It established to champion future proposals is further supported by Objective One, for the town. Its mission is ‘to make The Tin Country Integrated Area Camborne parish a more desirable place Partnership and significantly the local in which to live, work and invest and to community. encourage the development of eligible Objective One projects in the Camborne An Urban Framework Plan (UFP) was parish’. produced in 2000 to set out the key goals and aspirations. This is now being The momentum for change has begun, delivered through a more focused Action and civic pride within the town is Plan and dedicated team working with the partners. Although the conurbation is

June 2004 8 2: Camborne: the context Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne being looked at as an entity, there is an assurance that individual settlements will not be merged into one. Rather, the individuality of the places and communities will be strengthened. The clear distinctions between the places will be used to the advantage of the area. The aim being that the settlements should not compete but instead complement each other – ‘three distinct, interlocking places’. The URC’s vision of the Camborne Pool The bus station has been highlighted as a Redruth area has Camborne’s unique potential major brownfield regeneration site for the town by the URC (Extract from CCC selling point (USP) as the ‘in town Historic Environment Service, ACS 5401) shopping centre’, distinguishing it from the ‘visitor economy and cultural and creative industry quarter’ at Redruth and ‘working heart’ at Pool.

The UFP’s plans for Camborne focus on uplifting the town centre’s vitality and viability. Conservation of the historic environment has been identified as a principal opportunity to achieve environmental improvement. With diversification and marketing initiatives The former Holman site at Trevu Road – a URC priority site for reuse (Extract from CCC also been identified as important aspects Historic Environment Service, ACS 5401) of the town’s regeneration. mixed use developments The main features of the proposed town • Primacy of Trelowarren Street to be centre regeneration include: reinforced by environmental and • the renewal and restoration of the historic building upgrading historic built environment, including • The former compare Holman site and shopfront improvements and wider setting, Dolcoath Avenue – landscaping; potential development site, currently • diversification of the town centre, subject to a masterplanning exercise reintroducing housing, employment • Scrap yard redevelopment, Foundry and community life, including 2,500m2 Road – potential development site in offices, non-retail uses on new sites • New Town Park, Rectory road and within existing premises; South West RDA and English • access, safety, on-street environment Partnership’s funding has been secured and amenity enhancement; by KDC and the IAP team for the • a Town Centre Partnership second phase of the Town Centre Management scheme. Improvements Scheme. This aims to build on the achievements of the phase 1 Key sites to be targeted by the proposals programme. This c£2.5 million scheme include the following. proposes environmental improvements • Two flagship development projects at to the streetscape, landscape, surface the Gas Street Bus Station and the treatments, signing, interpretation and former Holman site at Trevu Road – street furniture in the town centre. It will also improve shop fronts and may

June 2004 9 2: Camborne: the context Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne expand to address potential office and • Bringing buildings and vacant or residential space above shops. underused floor space back into use, To ensure that the historic environment providing a long-term solution to plays a role as a valuable catalyst within bringing derelict and underused the town’s regeneration a Townscape properties back into more economic Heritage Initiative has been proposed use. covering Camborne, Tuckingmill and • Repair of quality surviving historic Roskear. This scheme is promoted by the shopfronts and reinstatement of lost Heritage Lottery Fund and will attract architectural details. additional public and private funding • Improvements to key areas of the with a total value of around £1.3 million. public realm that will have an If approved this scheme will prioritise the influence on private sector investment following. decisions and public pride. • Quality traditional repairs, utilising The future of the town will also be local materials and building techniques influenced by the outcome of the on targeted historic buildings within ongoing UNESCO bid for World the town centre. Heritage Site status for Cornish Mining. Just as it was one of the capitals of the richest mineral area in the world during the nineteenth century, so too could Camborne play an important role in the twenty-first century in the proposed World Heritage Site.

Landscape and setting

The Camborne-Redruth conurbation lies Historic buildings in need of sympathetic on the northern edge of the mineralised repair and reinstatement of architectural ridge running down the spine of the detail will be targeted in the proposed peninsula, on a plateau sloping Townscape Heritage Initiative northwards to the sea. The urban area of Camborne is framed to the east by the steep slopes of the Red River valley, to the south by the granite uplands of Beacon Hill, Carn Entral and Carn Arthen and to the west by a plateau of level ground. The settlements are sited along the old cross-county road (A3047), which follows a slight ridgeline within the plateau. This was turnpiked in 1839 and has now been pre-empted by the A30.

The surrounding area has been defined in the 1994 Cornwall Historic Landscape There are potential opportunities for Characterisation (HLC) as predominantly Camborne associated with the proposed of surviving Anciently Enclosed Land, Cornish Mining World Heritage Site with some Recently Enclosed Land to the north west. To the east a landscape of

June 2004 10 2: Camborne: the context Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

Predominantly Industrial character has one within the immediate vicinity been defined. (Camborne Recreation Ground – Cornwall 527). Apart from a tenth- Cutting north-south across this relatively century inscribed altar front inside the gently sloping landscape are a number of church (Cornwall 529), all are narrow, deeply-cut river valleys such as relocated early medieval stone crosses that of the Red River, the lower parts of or cross fragments – two are in the their sides made even more steep by churchyard (Cornwall 31823, 30450), centuries of exploitation for tin streaming one in the forecourt of the Donald and tailing and various other industrial Thomas Centre, Chapel Street processes. (Cornwall 31850) and one in the While later industrial settlements in the forecourt of the Wesleyan Methodist area are all focused on these river valleys, Chapel, Chapel Street (Cornwall 136). the medieval church town of Camborne was set on a small spur projecting • Thirty-eight Listed Buildings (1 Grade northwards from the granite uplands, and I: Church of St Martin and St stands in a relatively elevated position Meriadoc), 2 Grade II*: Rosewarne overlooking a wide sweep of land, above House (Gladys Holman house), the valley-streams. The town is set Tehidy Road, and Donald Thomas against the now built-upon Camborne Centre, Chapel Street. The remainder Beacon, which was formerly like the are Grade II. more distant rising downland of Carn • There is currently no Conservation Entral and Carn Brea, with small upland Area in Camborne. The CISI report fields and unenclosed land, and indeed made recommendations for a the immediate surroundings of Conservation Area and this is Camborne in the pre-industrial period currently being assessed by KDC. In seem to have been as much moorland order to qualify for the THI grant the and rough grazing as good agricultural area must merit Conservation Area land. designation and if a grant is offered Immediately to the north of Camborne, the HLF will require that it is the A30 forms a man-made landscape designated before any expenditure is boundary and serves to separate the area committed. from the richer agricultural land on the other side of the dual carriageway. Mining remains in the form of engine houses and extensive workings are also an important part of the landscape setting.

Historic environment designations

The current historic environment designations in the historic urban core of Camborne are shown on Figure 5 and listed below. • There are five Scheduled Monuments in the primary study area and a further

June 2004 11 2: Camborne: the context Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

3 Historic The origins of the settlement itself are obscure, although it seems to have had development early Christian significance, with a legendary foundation by the sixth-century Brittany missionary Saint Meriadoc. The Camborne’s historic industrial later Cornish-language miracle play set in importance is hard to overstate. The Camborne, recounting the life of the town has played an important role not saint, Bewnans Meryasek, suggests that only in the history of Cornish mining and Meriadoc visited a chapel in the present mine-related engineering, but also in the churchyard dedicated to St Mary and St wider national and international context Anne before establishing his own church. of the Industrial Revolution. The A holy well and associated well-chapel, settlement originated, however, as an also dedicated to Meriadoc, may also date important early Christian centre and for from this period, sited on the west side much of its history it has been a hamlet- of what is now Tehidy Road. Additionally sized church town, with later market a tenth-century altar stone, the ‘Leuiut functions. Its evolution to an urban Stone’, is found within the church, settlement is closely related to the mining although its provenance is unclear and its boom of the first half of the nineteenth reddish granite is not local to the parish. century when the town grew rapidly. This The church may, therefore, have rich and varied past is reflected in its originated as an early Christian lann site, development, topographical history and although later graveyard extensions have surviving historic environment (see Figs. obscured the original enclosure 3, 4 and 5). boundaries. It is not inconceivable that the church was established within an Iron Age Early origins hillfort positioned on the crest of the promontory, and that first the lann and Archaeological evidence suggests then some of the streets in the vicinity of prehistoric activity in the area with the church follow the lines of either settlement attested in the pattern of ramparts or ditches. If so, the possibility known or suspected defended farmsteads exists that prehistoric and early medieval (rounds) dating to the late prehistoric and remains survive below ground in the Romano-British period in the vicinity of vicinity and that this early development the town and mainly in the Anciently may still be dictating the way the town Enclosed Land. works and its street layout in the 21st century. More unusually, in a Cornish setting, are the indications of a high status Romano- British building discovered in the garden of a cottage at Lower Rosewarne. Medieval church town Similarities were noted to the villa-type building excavated at nearby Magor, The first documentary record of 2.5km to the north. In addition to these Camborne church town is from 1181. building remains a hoard of Situated just off the main cross-county Constantinian coins (306-337 AD) was routes, the church town was sited on a recovered in Rosewarne Park and such small spur projecting northwards from finds may reflect an interest in the the granite uplands (a feature referred to mineral wealth of the area during this in its name, incorporating the Cornish period. elements Cam- meaning ‘curved, bent’ and bron meaning ‘breast’, taken to mean

June 2004 12 3: Historic development Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

‘curved hill-front’). Set away from the Market town richer agricultural lands in the more northerly parts of the parish, its By the seventeenth century, Camborne immediate surroundings were as much of had become a service and market centre, moorland and rough grazing as good acquiring market rights and three annual agricultural land. In 1584, Norden fairs by 1708. This development seems to described Camborne as ‘A churche have been more a matter of convenience standinge among the barrayne hills’ and the than any push to promote and develop settlement was set to remain much the the town, with market stalls erected on same for the next two hundred years: a waste land to the east of the church. local church town no more than a hamlet However tin streaming and shallow lode- in terms of size and population, with later back (tin) mining were first recorded farms, some of them small manorial locally from the 1400s, and may have centres (Crane, Rosewarne, Weeth, some connection with the increase in Camborne Veor and Camborne Vean) commercial activity. Shaft and adit scattered through the neighbourhood. mining is recorded by the sixteenth There was a network of radiating church century and it is with this development paths connecting to outlying hamlets, that the evolution of the town is so some marked by twelfth-century crosses closely connected. (many of which have been relocated to the church yard), and a possible medieval playing place, 1.5km to the north-east, remembered in the field name ‘ring place’ Heart of Cornish mining (indicating a possible medieval re-use of an earlier round site), and a later sporting The early eighteenth-century use remembered in the name of the development of the local copper mines current ‘Race Farm’. transformed the area into Cornwall’s principal industrial centre. Together with Redruth, the two towns were to form the heart of Cornish mining for the next two centuries. By the 1770s, the Camborne mines were major producers in the county; Dolcoath

in particular soon established itself as the most important of them all (later th acknowledged in the 20 century as the ‘Queen of Cornish Mines’); virtually the whole area of the later town was The church of St Martin and St Meriadoc peppered by mines, already experiencing the bewildering sequence of closures and re-openings that characterised the Cornish mining industry. While many of these proved unprofitable and closed within a few years, in the short term they

provided employment for miners, and profits for merchants that helped speed the development of the new town at Camborne. In addition the mining activity attracted related industries such as the numerous smithies and small

Twelfth century cross now standing in the church yard June 2004 13 3: Historic development Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

engineering workshops within the built- By the turn of the century there had been up area, including Richard Trevithick’s some modest provision of urban workshop in Tehidy Road and Nicholas facilities. In 1802 Lord de Dunstanville Holman’s boiler works founded in 1801, (of the Basset family) erected the first the forerunner of Holman’s, a company purpose-built market hall in the Market so much a part of the history of the Square, reflecting the growing town. commercial and population pressures and Although the local population doubled aspirations. between 1768 and 1801, the church town So by the time of the 1809 Ordnance and its surrounding hamlets were hedged Surveyor’s drawings the settlement had in on all sides by church glebe (to the expanded little from its hamlet size of the west and south), active mine workings (to preceding centuries. Its satellite manors the north and east) and a complex still retained their rural setting, isolated landholding structure that prevented and distinct from the church town core. much expansion. The result was intensification of settlement within the church town ‘A growing rival to Redruth’ around the market place and Gurneys Lane, with a few short and scattered The 1823 Pigot’s Directory notes: ‘The cottage rows along College Row (on the town has, of late years, risen into much north side of the churchyard), Tehidy consideration, and being situated in the heart of Road and Weeth Road, Fore Street, the a mining district, its population and trade may route to The Cross (around the former be expected to increase in proportion to the Basset Hotel), and the western portion of prosperity of the mines. As a growing rival to Bakehouse Lane (now Trelowarren Redruth, it is already become a post, and a Street). market town’.

Camborne church town from the south east. The curved line of a possible round, later lann can still be seen in the townscape form. (CCC Historic Environment Service, 2001 ACS 5399) June 2004 14 3: Historic development Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

The decades between 1820 and 1840 saw the re-opening of great copper mines like North and South Roskear and expansion of Dolcoath, accelerating the local economy and doubling the population once more (some 2000 in 1823; 4377 in 1841). Ancillary industries and infrastructure were developed for the first time on a large scale, the Hayle Railway and branches were built (1834-7), a gasworks was built in 1834, and Holman opened a Basset Road villa residence, typical of the small foundry near Centenary Chapel in early 19th century middle class 1839. There were 75 smiths recorded in development of Basset land the town in the 1841 census, each of them small-scale enterprises, but creating in aggregate an important industrial section. The town expanded largely through the development of the Vyvyans’ Trelowarren estate on which in the 1830s an irregular grid of streets were laid out. Trelowarren Street (renamed from Bakehouse Lane in 1818) was extended as part of this process. To some extent the urban form of these rows and Extract from the historic development GIS terraces of workers’ cottages reflects the mapping showing the comparison between former field systems, and probably also 1809 (red) and 1841 (purple) extents took into account the existence of abandoned mine wastes in the area. These old linear dumps influenced the bulk of the development focussed to the line of the new turnpike road of 1839. east of the church core on Vyvan land. The Basset-owned lands by the church In contrast with nearby Redruth, town were developed more for middle Camborne by 1841 was overwhelmingly a class housing, although College Street mining town. Over two thirds of the and Fore Street also had cottage rows working population were employed built along them. The two great directly by the mines, the rest were landowners seem to have vied for a mostly dependent shopkeepers and other leading role in promoting the dignity and tradesmen. The middle class and facilities of the town. Although the professional population of the town was Bassets were the more important patrons small compared to Redruth, an old- of the church, the rectory, the market, established market, service and general local schools and institutes it was actually industrial centre with a much broader the Vyvyans who provided the vast population range and varied economic majority of new housing. base. Camborne’s built environment, as a result, was always more dominated by the This dramatic expansion is captured by classic industrial building types of cottage comparison of the 1809 OS sketch map rows, pubs and chapels. and the 1841 tithe map. The settlement had more than doubled in size with the

June 2004 15 3: Historic development Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

provide large-scale employment (in 1843 North Roskear employed 700, while by

1869 Dolcoath was the largest tin mine in Cornwall, employing 1266 and reputed to be the richest mine in the world). Despite a slump in the 1860s, it was not until the great tin boom of 1870-72 had run its course that permanent decline set in to Camborne’s mining industry. Foundries and engineering works continued to expand, and became the second major element in the town’s industrial base. Carnarthen Street, typical industrial workers dwellings There were two main phases of expansion in the town during this period. The first was the completion of the development of the Vyvyan estate in the 1850s (Centenary Street, Moor Street, Tolcarne Street, Trevenson Street, the western half of Carnarthen Street and Stray Park Road). At the same time, the middle-class housing in Basset Road,

Basset Street and South Terrace was extended and largely completed.

The strong grid layout of industrial housing The second phase of development is is a distinctive feature of Camborne associated with the brief but important revival in the tin industry around 1870, with small groups of cottages and rows being built directly adjacent to the mines (Wheal Gerry, Camborne Vean, Stray Park), and associated with the industrial complexes around Holman’s and the

railway station (Carnarthen/Trevenson Street). Major new extensions to the town’s area were also created by better- class suburban development along Pendarves Road, and Trevu Road/Beacon Hill, where the quality and

size of the houses and their spacious The Trevu Road / Beacon Hill suburbs. grounds contrasted with the mass of the Large, high status homes set in spacious rows down in the town itself. grounds Comparison of the 1841 tithe map and Copper to tin the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1880 show this expansion, concentrated to the south and east of the town. Although Camborne undoubtedly suffered in the mining recession of the Camborne’s civic pretensions grew in line ‘hungry forties,’ it probably did so less with its swelling population, as shown in than other mining areas – the strength of the grand rebuilding by the Bassets of the the great mines, and the switch from market and town hall in 1866. The copper to tin mining continued to creation of a Local Board in 1873 was, in

June 2004 16 3: Historic development Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne effect, Camborne’s first independent urban authority confirming the settlement’s evolution from village to town.

Decline of Cornish mining

The last years of the nineteenth century saw a gradual decline in both the tin and particularly the copper industries (although disguised to contemporaries by the boom/bust cycles in the mining industry) and the area was hit by mass employment, emigration and riots. The Dolcoath group fared better than most, still continuing in tin production and also diversifying, especially into arsenic, at the turn of the twentieth century. The market house, rebuilt by the Bassets in The increasing mechanisation and 1866 internationalism of the industry helped move Holman’s and the other engineering enterprises into a larger-scale of operation, particularly producing rock- drills.

Although the 1880s were generally prosperous years in Camborne, there was relatively little expansion as the mining population continued to fall. An increasing service-based middle class meant that grander pairs and detached houses were the more typical building Bay windowed semi in Enys Street with types of these years, with new ornate cast iron porch. Indicates the growth developments built at Trelawney Road, in the late 19th century of the service-based Pendarves Road, Enys Road/Hughville middle classes of the town Street, Foundry Lane, Cadogan Road and the glebe lands still constrained growth to Redbrooke Road, with small pockets of the west. infilling elsewhere. However, while there was relatively little Development throughout the period expansion, there was large-scale continued along the traditional local redevelopment of the central area, pattern, as shown in the expansion particularly of its commercial and public detailed on the second edition OS map of buildings with both public and private 1908, with new growth again mostly to buildings developed on a grand scale. the east of the old church town, along Much of the commercial area was rebuilt the roads to the Rosewarnes, and south from 1885 (Trelowarren Street, up Beacon Hill. The main mines worked Commercial Street and Cross Street), and to the east, south-east and north-east, especially from 1894-1908. The and distinctive group of overtly urban, three-

June 2004 17 3: Historic development Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

storey buildings along Commercial Street typify this work. Only piecemeal

development of this nature occurred along Trelowarren Street, suggesting that at this time the heart of the town was still centred on the church and market core.

New facilities included the tram connection between Camborne and Redruth (1902-27), the post office in Chapel Street (1899), the Holman Fountain (Chapel Street, 1890), the Smith Commercial Street: overtly urban, 3 storey Methodist Institute (1887), Masonic Hall buildings (1899), Salvation Army Citadel (1890), and a new cemetery at Treswithian Road

established 1889. Most of the chapels and their schools in the town were expanded and re-ordered. Camborne School of Mines was developed from 1881, and its patrons, the Bassets, also presented football and rugby grounds and a public park to the town in 1897.

In 1895 Camborne was made an Urban District Council and a new civic centre was created at The Cross, with the Public Rooms (1890), library (1895), the

municipal buildings and fire station (1903).

The twentieth century

There were boom years in the early ‘Tower House’, Trelowarren Street. Late twentieth century, and massive 19th century urban building amid earlier, investment programmes around 1906, smaller scale two storey residential with Dolcoath Mine constructing buildings Dolcoath Avenue in a bid to attract skilled workers for its reinvestment plans. Such plans continued until the tin market collapse of 1913-14. The closure of Dolcoath in 1921 caused a depression from which the area never really recovered, despite some re-investment in local mines and limited recovery in the later 1920s. Still a significant employer,

the mining industry was all but over in Camborne by the onset of the Second World War. The Cross. Passmore Edwards library of Holman’s industries, however, continued 1895 with statue of Trevithick to expand, especially the pneumatic tools

June 2004 18 3: Historic development Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne division from 1919, taking over the closure of the CompAir Holman works Public Rooms in 1930, and building a marks a further chapter in the decline of new factory in 1939-40. The turn to the town’s traditional economy. wartime munitions and engineering However, another engineering firm has production of several businesses in and taken over part of the site and continues around Camborne helped maintain in production. employment levels. Holman’s Holbit Camborne’s urban regeneration has, works were built in 1946, carrying the however, begun with the completion of firm into what was otherwise a period of the first phase of a Town Centre post-war industrial decline in the town. Improvement Programme resulting in an From this heyday the company reduced upgrading of Commercial Square and the in size and employment capacity; its implementation of a traffic management former sites around the town; Holman’s system in Trelowarren Street. Further No. 1 works and No. 2 works, fell out of ambitious plans are proposed, as detailed use and were redeveloped with the total in Section 2. However, the town’s loss of the industrial structures that had problems and physical decay are such played such a major role within the that much is still required. economy of the town. Scarcely any development or expansion occurred in Camborne after the first decade of the twentieth century. Until the new housing estate on the old glebe lands, there were only a few isolated houses and bungalows built and a few public or commercial buildings, including the almshouses at Bethany Homes and the cinema. When, in 1934, Camborne merged with Redruth to become one Urban District Council something of its independent character was lost.

Into the twenty-first century

Camborne has largely taken over Redruth’s traditional role as principal shopping town for the area. It is the largest settlement in the Camborne Pool Redruth conurbation and continues to function as a substantial residential, shopping, service and administration centre. Its traditional industrial activity has declined with the major industrial estates of the area now located at Pool, to the east. Many of the town’s historic industrial sites have been, or are currently being redeveloped for housing and the

June 2004 19 3: Historic development Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

4 Archaeological It should be emphasised that ‘archaeology’ does not refer solely to potential buried remains. These are of undoubted importance, but in the urban context examination of the historical sequences Camborne’s archaeology is a largely embodied in standing buildings and other unknown resource as very few features above ground can also be archaeological interventions (excavations, extremely valuable. Examination of the watching briefs, evaluations, etc) have built environment is likely to yield been undertaken within the historic core significant new information. of the town (fig 6). These are as follows. Opportunities for investigation and • An archaeological watching brief recording should be sought when carried out during works to the buildings are refurbished or undergo Market House in 1981. substantial alteration. Figure 5 indicates the survival of historic fabric, defined • Assessment and watching brief here as standing pre-1908 structures, mitigation during the capping of a which may offer potential for fruitful shaft relating to Crane and Bejawsa archaeological investigation. Mine, 1999. Archaeology within the town centre may • Negative evidence recovered during a yield evidence of Camborne’s origins and supposed shaft capping, Aneray early development and history as a Road, 2000. church town of which little is known and • Archaeological assessment and much conjectured. Deposits around the watching brief at Wheal Harriet, 1993 church and market house may yield and 2001. information about its possible prehistoric origins, its suspected early Christian • Archaeological and historic importance, and its evolution as a market assessment, watching brief and centre. Camborne is likely to have engine house assessment at Stray significant industrial archaeological Park Mine, 1991 remains that may elucidate the • Cornwall Industrial Settlements development of mining in this area and Initiative report, assessing, the related urbanisation of the town. characterising and making From the earliest prehistoric exploitation conservation based recommendations and potential Roman interest, through for the town’s historic environment medieval tin streaming to deep mining, evidence may be available in the town’s Archaeology is a potentially rich asset for archaeological record. In addition to the town. The documentary record is mining the town was host to many silent on many aspects of the settlement’s associated industrial processes and there development and archaeological are likely to be remains of these on the investigation may be the only way in known sites of smithies and engineering which certain aspects of the town’s works. historic development and character can be better understood. Archaeology can Further documentary research is likely to also make a significant contribution in yield valuable data. This area of study, both cultural and economic terms with together with participation in a building remains of the past having a significant survey of the town, could provide a potential for education, tourism and challenging and worthwhile avenue for leisure, as well as a role in local pride, involvement by local people wishing to sense of place and belonging. investigate aspects of their heritage.

June 2004 20 4: Archaeological potential Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

Archaeological remains are an important It should be noted that there is also a and non-renewable resource and as such proven potential within the area for the are protected by national legislation and survival of archaeological remains that local planning policy. One component of predate or are unrelated to the future investigation of both buried development of the town. In the absence archaeological remains and standing of specific information such as reports of buildings could be through more finds or antiquarian references the extensive targeted implementation of potential presence of such sites is PPG15 and PPG16 as part of the difficult to predict. development control process. NB. Overviews of the archaeological potential of the five Character Areas within the town are presented in Section Indicators of archaeological 8. potential

Figure 6 indicates the potential extent of archaeological remains, although it must be emphasised that this depiction of potential is indicative, not definitive, and only future archaeological investigation and research can test and refine its value. An understanding of the potential is broadly derived from the historic extent of the settlement itself. In simple terms, Development work provides an opportunity any location within the area developed to to record archaeological remains c.1908 is regarded as having the potential for standing or buried archaeological features; the earlier settlement core (as shown by the 1841 tithe map) may have more complex and deeply stratified deposits. The figure also identifies a number of sites and areas of known historic significance: ie those where the presence of a significant structure or feature can be identified from historic maps or documentary sources but does not now Blocked doorways and nails used to train fruit trees provide evidence of the former survive above ground (for example, the Rosewarne kitchen garden (now car park) site of the Holman No. 1 works on Wesley Street). Points are used to approximately locate features where the available sources are not adequate to pinpoint a specific location; for example the site of the reputed pilgrim’s chapel of St Mary and St Anne, thought to have been located within the current churchyard but its specific location unknown.

Wheal Harriett. Important mining heritage, to be included in the proposed World Heritage Site June 2004 21 4: Archaeological potential Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

5 Statement of significance, Camborne

Camborne is historically the most industrialised of the Cornish towns. Essentially a nineteenth-century industrial town, it expanded eastwards from a core medieval church town. It has a rich endowment of nineteenth-century public buildings and in particular many nonconformist chapels, together with planned areas of mineworkers’ housing, the dominant grid of terraced rows, and more gracious villa areas which were developed as homes for the mine managers, owners and industrial entrepreneurs. Its unusually flat terrain, wide streets and low two storey buildings distinguish it from the typical urban Cornish scene of steeply sloping, curving hillside development flanked by towering three story town houses. Camborne is currently an under-valued town, battling against its poor perception caused by the structural weakness of the local economy during the 20th century. However, this poor perception does not tally with the inherent quality of its historic buildings, structures and townscape.

Camborne: an early church town and 19th century industrial town (CCC Historic Environment Service, ACS 5411, 2001)

June 2004 22 5: Statement of Significance Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

6 Present settlement form of the early development. Linear ribbon development along the existing character network of roads and the imposition of an ordered network of long lengths of industrial terraces and rows over green fields and mining waste can be seen in the morphology of today’s town. The planned Topography and expansion to the east of the ancient core settlement form was laid out over a grid pattern. Street after street of high density industrial terraces line Although generally perceived as level, up in regimented uniformity, creating the the town’s topography is subtle but distinctive strongly ordered, linear and important to its character. The church, angular pattern of straight roads. This the origin of the town, is set on a regularity is emphasised by the generally promontory spur, with land falling level topography within the streets. The away to the north, down ‘Camborne slightest curved line sets Carnarthen Street Hill’. This topographical setting apart from other dead-straight roads. ensured the church was a prominent The long strip gardens of these terraces are landmark feature within the landscape another distinguishing feature of this urban before the nineteenth-century form. Houses are generally set at the front expansion of the industrial town. of the plot, often direct on the pavement To the south the climbing terrain of edge or behind a small front garden with a Beacon Hill is a notable feature, rising long back garden behind, sometimes immediately to the south of the separated by a public footpath. Although railway. the predominately mining workforce were urbanised they still had to feed themselves Within this topographical setting, and this need was built into the fabric of the however, many of the streets are town. unusually level in comparison to the dramatic hillside settlements common The terrace rows generally have access to in the county. Although gentle, the back service lanes or paths which have topography of the town is surprisingly tended to accumulate sheds, garages and bin significant, making roofscape an shelters. In some instances the front of the important feature. next line of terraces faces onto the back lane of the adjacent street, introducing a ‘front- The pre-nineteenth-century core of back’ conflict. the town clusters around the church and market area. This is the meeting point of a radiating network of routes and medieval church paths. This area has curved and winding lines, such as Gurney’s Lane which may recall the curved boundary of an earlier hillfort, round or lann site. The ancient and organic nature of development is shown in its non-angular layout, such as the sinuous course of Cross Street and the curve of Fore Street. The rapid nineteenth-century expansion of the settlement contrasts Although generally perceived as level, the markedly with the organic and sinuous town’s gentle topography is significant to townscape character

June 2004 23 6: Present settlement character Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

th Sinuous urban form of the medieval church town contrasts with the grid form of the 19 century industrial town (CCC Historic Environment Service, ACS 5806, 2001)

Standing historic fabric A triangle made up of the most important roads in the settlement is a The town contains much surviving historic dominant feature within the town’s fabric of interest and quality (Fig 5). Overall form – Trelowarren Street, Trevenson it has a feeling of completeness. The Street and Basset Road. majority of the buildings date to the The railway is also a strong element nineteenth-century urbanisation of the within the town, generally forming the settlement and small-scale residential southern boundary to its nineteenth- industrial workers housing dominate. century expansion and the divide However, there are some structures of between the industrial town and the earlier date, generally found around the leafy suburbs on the slopes of Beacon church and market historic core, such as the Hill. eighteenth-century Tyack’s Inn complex on the north side of Church Street. Camborne has more well defined potential public spaces than many Building types Cornish towns, with obvious focal points at the two ends of Trelowarren Several distinct building types can be Street, at Commercial Square and at defined within the surviving historic fabric The Cross. As in other local towns including the following. these are not deliberately planned Overtly urban, three storied commercial structures. ‘squares’, but occur more naturally at There is a predominance of residential, two road junctions. storey buildings within the town and even in the principal Trelowarren Street. Many of the buildings here are in fact residential houses converted for commercial use as the

June 2004 24 6: Present settlement character Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne town evolved and developed. It appears that the town was in the process of rebuilding itself when the downturn of the mining economy began and as a result this incomplete evolution is fossilised in its built environment. There is an impressive group of commercial, three storey buildings around the market house, with other isolated examples sparsely scattered along Trelowarren Street. Surprisingly a number of the buildings Overtly urban, 3 storey, stone built bank that Camborne has lost have been building, Commercial Street among its most impressive, such as one of the largest and the best: Vivian’s drapery shop on Basset Road. The town includes a number of good surviving shopfronts and other details, such as decoratively tessellated ‘in-gos’ complete with advertising references to earlier shops. Industrial workers’ housing. This dominant building type has defined Camborne as the most Typical industrial workers housing stock industrialised of Cornwall’s towns. which defines much of the character of the Most is of mid-late nineteenth-century town, Wesley Street date. Earlier cottages (late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century) survive along Fore Street and Tehidy Road. Industrial complexes. As well as housing the workforce the town’s fabric also retains some of the industrial workplaces and evidence of the mining activity. Due to the change in the economic base of the town many of these sites have become vacant and are under threat. Some Industrial complexes such as the former have been lost and redeveloped such Homan’s No. 3 works recall the former as the Holman No 1 works, now mining and engineering base of the local Tesco, Wesley Street. Holman’s No. 3 economy works, opposite the railway station, is currently under used and under threat. Former mine sites within the town have been capped and redeveloped, leaving little trace of their existence, for example Camborne Vean Mine to the south of the railway line off Stray Park Lane.

Villa suburbs demonstrate the private wealth generated in the area. Trevu Road. June 2004 25 6: Present settlement character Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

Middle-class and large houses. Camborne has a surprisingly large number of substantial, well-detailed and often elegant houses. These stuccoed villas and larger residences formerly housed managers and owners of the industrial and commercial enterprises around the town. Good examples are seen along Basset Road, with Rosewarne, now Gladys Holman House, and its park to the north of the town, still recognisable despite The town has an impressive collection of late twentieth-century development. th 19 century public buildings, such as the Public buildings and chapels. former County School, Trevu Road Set within the town are numerous civic and religious structures the architecture of which has been used to proclaim the town’s aspirations and civic pride. The former Tehidy Estate Office, now the Community Centre, is one example. An important cluster of these buildings is found at The Cross and includes the library, the former Public Rooms, municipal offices and old fire station. Numerous chapels are set throughout the town two of the finest and most Oriels, bays and gabled dormers enliven the streetsca pe, for example in Fore Street. impressive being the Centenary Chapel and the Wesley Chapel on Chapel Street. Common building materials Camborne is almost entirely a stone- built town, largely of the local hard killas, but with extensive use of local granite for dressings, and many buildings are built purely of granite.

All roofs are of Cornish slate, or modern artificial replacements. Imported materials, such as terracotta and Plymouth limestone, are used on some prestigious buildings especially in the commercial core of Trelowarren, Chapel, Cross and Commercial Streets. Render is widespread, although not so much used here as in some contemporary

Cornish towns. It is used mostly on mid nineteenth-century commercial Plaster door and window surrounds are a properties and the villas of Basset common decorative feature, often highlighted with the subtle use of bright colour

June 2004 26 6: Present settlement character Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

Road. Limited occasional use has been made of scoria blocks (copper smelting waste) in the town, for example at Rosewarne Wollas. Architectural details Several examples of locally distinctive detailing can be identified in Camborne’s surviving historic buildings. Oriel windows are one such feature, often coupled with gabled roof details above, with ornate barge Union Street, an example of the typical boards and finials. Several techniques planned 19th century development of relatively are used to enliven the industrial wide roads flanked by low two storey cottage terraces and rows, with raised rows rendered margins around doors and windows a very distinctive feature. Some of these margins are further treated with vermiculated plaster work and in panel motifs. This suggests that the original finish of the rubble walling was whitewashed rather than rendered and this is further supported by some surviving scoring of the pointing. Limited use of bright colours applied to these plaster margins and ornamentation, gutterings and eaves subtly enlivens the streetscape and allows individuality and personalisation of the uniform terrace rows. Set within the town are several much larger building complexes, such as the cinema, the large chapels, the market house and several twentieth-century buildings. As such these structures Throughout the town there is a good survival have much larger and higher roof of historic surfacing. For example the long, masses than the lines of terraces and thin slabs outside the Regal Hotel are very visible within wider townscape views. not the overriding experience in Camborne, although the historic core around the Streetscapes and views market house has some hint of it. Instead the majority of its roads are relatively wide, straight and level, flanked by low, two Camborne’s streetscapes are storey residences. This openness to the sky noticeably different from the typical makes the town feel relatively light and airy, Cornish urban scene of steeply with less dramatic over shadowing than sloping, narrow, winding street other local towns. This lack of enclosure towered over by tall, narrow buildings. and small scale typifies the town’s unique This accustomed sense of enclosure is character and distinctiveness.

June 2004 27 6: Present settlement character Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

Given the very hard nature of the impact on the spatial character of townscape within the main housing Camborne, although as most residents have streets, the rear lanes and alleyways to pass through the centre to reach them often present a very informal and non- (either on foot or by car) they contribute urban appearance, usually gravel much to the experience of the place. surfaced, with a partial survival of As a result of the straightness of the roads, often large enclosing stone walls, most views within the townscape tend to be cut through to provide garages and longer and less baffled than in other hard-standings, but with a large Cornish towns. Iconic views to two of the number of older outbuildings. most important landmark buildings of the Throughout the town there is a good town are available at either end of survival of granite kerbs to the Trelowarren Street with the Market House pavements giving a robustness and with its distinctive clock tower to the west solidity to the streetscape and setting and the splendid Centenary Chapel to the the town in its locality. In several areas east. there are some very good surviving Again unlike those of many other Cornish areas of granite slab paving. towns, Camborne’s church is not a There are three distinct areas of prominent urban landmark feature. It has substantial greenery within the town been dwarfed and hidden by later core: at the centre, the church and its developments and its site sidelined by the graveyards; Rosewarne and its now nineteenth-century eastward expansion of developed grounds to the north; and the town. to the south west the villas and large Views out of the townscape to the houses around Beacon Hill. Although surrounding green fields are available with in many cases this planting is set silhouetted engine houses on the horizon a within private areas its impact is wider constant reminder of the former industrial than its immediate locality and is an success of the area. important amenity in the townscape providing a character of quality and longevity.

Front gardens are important in some areas, for example Basset Road where the semi-exotic planting adds much to the genteel quality of the pastel painted villas. Boundary walls, gates and gateposts are also another opportunity to demonstrate the quality of the area. Although the majority of the terraced houses have long strip gardens these have little impact on the character visible from the street as they are hidden by the rows Iconic Camborne views available at either end themselves. of Trelowarren Street. Views to the west dominated by the Italianate clock tower of the The town also has extensive areas of Market House sports grounds and the well- maintained Camborne Park on its western fringes. However, these highly-valued amenities are distant from the town centre and have little

June 2004 28 6: Present settlement character Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

Identifying Character Areas

Understanding character The CSUS investigation, in addition to identifying the broad elements of settlement character that define Camborne as a whole, identified five distinct Character Areas within the town’s historic (pre-1908) urban extent (see Section 8, below; Fig 7 and Character Area summary sheets 1-5). 1. Church town and commercial core 2. Industrial workers’ housing 3. South west villa suburbs 4. Industrial legacy 5. Rosewarne These Character Areas are differentiated from each other by their varied historic origins, functions and resultant urban topography, by the processes of change which have affected each subsequently (indicated, for example, by the relative completeness of historic fabric, or significant changes in use and status), and the extent to which these elements and processes are evident in the current townscape. In simple terms, each Character Area may be said to have its own individual ‘biography’ which has determined its present character. Taken with the assessment of overall settlement character, the five Character Areas offer a means of understanding the past and the present. In turn, that understanding provides the basis for a positive approach to planning future change which will maintain and reinforce the historic character and individuality of each area and the town as a whole - sustainable local distinctiveness.

June 2004 29 6: Present settlement character Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

7 Regeneration and Character-based principles management for regeneration These principles have been derived Characterising the historic environment directly from the analysis of the of Camborne has revealed the essential Character Areas and should underpin all dynamic factors underpinning the regeneration initiatives in Camborne: town’s character. Regeneration planning • Respect the contribution the physical which is informed and inspired by these topography and natural setting make elements can take a much more sure- to the unique character of the town. footed and proactive approach to creating beneficial change, reinforcing • Recognise the quality and distinctive and enhancing existing character and character of Camborne’s historic ensuring that new developments are built environment, and achieve closely integrated into the existing urban equally high quality and framework, more focused on enhancing distinctiveness in all future new build Camborne’s distinctiveness and strong and the public realm. ‘sense of place’, and ultimately more • successful. Respect the different Character Areas within the town and acknowledge The characterisation process has also and reinforce the urban hierarchy and produced a valuable dataset on the diversity they represent. historic fabric, archaeological potential and townscape character of the historic • Reinstate character and quality in the town. This information can be used as a built environment and public realm conventional conservation and planning where it has been eroded by tool to define constraints, as a yardstick inappropriate past interventions. against which to measure new • Present, interpret and promote development and policy proposals and Camborne as an historic Cornish as the basis of well founded town of quality, character and conservation management, restoration significance. and enhancement schemes and policies.

Central core of Camborne – church, market house and radiating road pattern (CCC Historic Environment Service, ACS 5759, 2001) June 2004 30 7: Regeneration and management Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

Regeneration and the town’s past and use it to shape a historic environment: key successful future. themes for Camborne Presentation and promotion - asserting Camborne’s historic significance Camborne’s high quality and diverse historic environment forms a crucial Attention should be paid to the element in the town’s character and interpretation and provision of sense of place. It also creates major information about the heritage of the opportunities, to an extent that would town. There is a need for an overall justify allocation of significant resources strategy and central information point. to project development and obtaining Strengthening its sense of place, history funding, such as the proposed THI and distinctiveness, with annual events scheme. The benefit in increased (such as the already successful economic activity, employment, and Trevithick day in April) would be a quality of life will complement well that positive step. The town already benefits derived from any major infrastructure- from an attractive town trail and the based projects, often with significantly town museum, currently housed in the less potential harm to the historic public library, also has potential to environment. communicate and interpret the town’s Characterisation has highlighted important past. Further interpretation regeneration and conservation and acknowledgment of the industrial opportunities for the historic area of importance of the town could be Camborne as a whole and for specific developed as part of the town’s role in areas and sites. These opportunities may the proposed Cornish Mining World be grouped under the following broad Heritage Site. themes. Any image redefinition needs to be effectively communicated to raise the Redefining Camborne profile of the town. Measures as diverse Camborne’s principal challenge is to as an effective marketing and branding redefine its poor image. Clearly, as seen strategy for the town and a coordinated in this survey, the town has considerable approach to the town’s management can qualities and resources to draw upon; its all contribute to this renaissance. poor image in no way tallies with the Presentation of the town’s historic quality of its rich history, the surviving significance could take many forms; historic environment of buildings and signage from the A30 with a brown townscape, and its population’s keen heritage sign describing the town as awareness of the value of these. ‘historic’ could be a simple initial step. Camborne’s historic significance, its Such measures would not only attract unique historic environment; its quality, additional visitors to the town, allowing completeness and interest have potential Camborne to tap into the tourism all for use as a positive asset within the around it, but it could also help instil a town’s regeneration - it is one of its sense of unique identity and pride in the main assets. town and attract new investment. Camborne should be encouraged to Understanding the asset rekindle the pride and confidence so clearly visible in its Victorian fabric. The Camborne’s distinctive character is opportunity exists to reclaim the sense based firmly on its setting, and the of quality, pride and prosperity of the quality and diversity of its historic components. To be fully successful, any

June 2004 31 7: Regeneration and management Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne regeneration scheme, whether or not it permitted development, changes and deals directly with the historic alterations. environment, should take full account of these elements and ensure that Maintaining and promoting appropriate designations and diversity management polices are in place at an The URC’s Action Plan defines retail early stage. attraction as a future unique selling This will benefit regeneration by giving point (USP) to guide the town’s certainty to the planning and regeneration. Already Trelowarren Street development process. It will also offer is a bustling, active High Street and links to the priorities of funding there are plans to develop and build on programmes, especially Objective One’s this character. The historic buildings and requirements for enhancing local townscape offer a quality environment distinctiveness and respecting the with potential for a compact retail centre cultural and historic resource. with easy access for residents and visitors alike. KDC and the URC have already set out their pledge to retain and reuse historic There are a number of large sites in buildings in the UFP, ‘There should be a Camborne that have been identified as presumption in favour of retaining substantial regeneration opportunities: historic buildings of character, whether • Retail development bus station and listed or unlisted….conversion (of adjoining sites, Union Street / Gas historic buildings) to compatible new Street / Chapel Street; uses will be encouraged…construction of new facilities should be avoided • the former Holman’s No. 3 works, where old buildings with adaptive re-use Trevu Road; could provide similar accommodation’. • the former CompAir Holman works, Re-evaluating designations and the Foundry Road. information base as part of this process The treatment of these sites is important might include: in terms of their potential regeneration • a review of the statutory list of gain but also in their impact on the historic buildings; character of the surrounding townscape. The unusually flat terrain of these sites • creating a supplementary list of offers more potential for larger scale locally significant structures (the redevelopment than would normally be ‘other historic buildings’ identified on practicable in more hilly towns. With Figure 5 and CSUS digital mapping significant redevelopment and offer an initial baseline); population growth planned in the CPR • comprehensive buildings at risk and area, there is potential for retail business / or condition surveys; to be enhanced in Camborne town centre. However larger scale • creating a Conservation Area to developments could add to the diversity cover the historic town (an area has of the town by being of mixed use; been suggested by the CISI report usefully combining commercial space, and is shown on Figure 5) and if that office accommodation, community use, is done preparing a Conservation residential accommodation and a Area Appraisal; continuing industrial use (for example at • Implementation of Article 4 the CompAir Holman site). Directions to control normally Massing, scale, height, roofscape, materials and design detailing are all key

June 2004 32 7: Regeneration and management Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne issues that will need to be considered for Integrating conservation such developments. Importantly the approaches to regeneration – impact of the new developments when respecting historic buildings viewed from the traditional small scale The overall quality, and the potential residential streets is a key consideration, high quality of the built environment in and is especially relevant for any works Camborne throws into sharp contrast a on the bus station site. number of structures and sites which are Respecting character currently underused, in need of repair and maintenance, or where character has An understanding of the specific been eroded by a past lack of care. In qualities of the various Character Areas particular there is a need to promote the and respect for the urban hierarchy they more productive use and urgent ongoing represent is vital. Such understanding care of several large and significant and respect has immediate practical nineteenth and early twentieth-century applications, including: public buildings and chapels, including • Appraising all proposals for change the important group at The Cross, the in terms of their potential for former Market House and a number of maintaining and enhancing character former chapels on and close to and Camborne’s distinctive sense of Trelowarren Street. quality. This applies equally to minor Traditional approaches to repair, changes to historic buildings and maintenance and enhancement of streetscapes and to larger scale historic buildings could be an developments. For these such increasingly important component of appraisal is particularly important if regeneration in Camborne, helping to the mistakes of the past are to be improve attractiveness, support property avoided, for instance the loss of grain values and benefit the overall condition and sense of place in the area to the of the housing and general building north and west of Tyack’s Hotel and stocks. The proposed THI programme their impact on the setting of the of works would seek to achieve such church. results in the historic core, should this • Provision of site-specific design be designated a Conservation Area. guidance, avoidance of pastiche and ‘token’ local distinctiveness, promotion of architectural excellence and ensuring that all new build is fully informed by the distinctive

elements of the town’s character.

• Encouraging use of local materials, construction techniques and skills. This will benefit smaller, specialised, locally based businesses, and

dovetails with regeneration strategies to increase training, skills, quality The former public assembly rooms, The employment opportunities and Cross. Significant historic building currently industrial enterprises (such as the under utilised and in need of sensitive necessary reopening and operation of repair, maintenance and more intensive reuse local slate and stone quarries).

June 2004 33 7: Regeneration and management Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

As well as reinstating distinctive architectural features on historic buildings and in the public realm, this could free up an available stock of buildings and sites for development and reuse and act as a catalyst to wider investment in the town. The result would be a sustainable source of brownfield development sites, increased occupation, and help in meeting demand for (affordable) housing, thus securing the vitality of the town centre where The townscape includes numerous good historic buildings are concentrated. examples of surviving historic shop fronts and architectural details There is potential for the local authority, URC, RDA or other agencies to acquire, re-use, enhance and promote such sites as a stimulus and contribution to regeneration investment, as is planned for the refurbishment of the former public assembly rooms at The Cross.

A proposed shopfront enhancement scheme also has potential to improve the streetscape of the commercial areas of the town. As part of the development of this project a detailed audit of historic shopfront components should be undertaken to fully understand survival levels throughout the town and to inform suitable patterns for new shopfronts. Research using historic photographs of the town will also be of use in designing more sympathetic modern frontages. Kerrier District Council has a guidance document on good design and best practise for shopfronts and signs. It sets out the Details, such as this decorative transom principles for maintaining and light and tessellated ‘in-go’, should be sensitively repairing existing historic recorded as part of a detailed audit of shopfronts and ensuring that new surviving historic shopfront components shopfronts respect the historic buildings prior to any shopfront enhancement into which they are set. Variety has been scheme identified as an important character attribute of the main shopping area and Enhancing townscape therefore a one-design-fits-all solution is A proactive approach to public realm unlikely to enhance the town. enhancement offers potential for some relatively easily achieved schemes that could have a decisive effect on the quality of the town. An initial phase of townscape improvements has already been completed and another has

June 2004 34 7: Regeneration and management Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne recently secured funding. Such a scheme Managing traffic and parking has the potential to make significant As in other urban areas traffic, parking improvements, particularly at key and vehicular / pedestrian conflict are gateway, arrival and nodal points within issues which are interlinked with the townscape, such as the Tesco regeneration proposals for the town. roundabout, around the railway station, The impact of traffic in the town is most the Rosewarne car parks and The Cross. keenly felt around the Commerical These points make the important initial Street area. Character and the historic impression on visitors that colour the environment can contribute to the whole of the subsequent experience of design and effectiveness of traffic coming to Camborne. Equally they aid management schemes. in the legibility of the town and in pedestrian movement patterns and the • Enhanced ‘gateways’ on the main overall town experience. roads into the town, as Within the core, public realm schemes recommended above, with greater could make radical improvements in the perceived pedestrian priority, would quality of spaces and streetscape and the emphasise the transition to an urban attractiveness of the town. Camborne environment, with lower vehicle benefits from some areas of surviving speeds, and thus reduce excessive good quality historic street surfacing and and repetitive signage throughout the furniture, such as the exceptional granite rest of the town. slab paving along Church Lane and • Design highways within the historic elsewhere. Properly recorded and townscape as streets in which people understood, these could form the basis move, live and work rather than of truly locally distinctive design for simply as roads for vehicle traffic enhancements to the public realm. (manifested, for example, in the scale Some key views and historic routes are of lighting, form of signs, carriageway obscured by signs, street furniture and and pavement width ratios and traffic-management features; such as the surface treatments). The traffic impressive views to the Centenary management scheme in Trelowarren Chapel. Such street ‘clutter’ could be Street seems to work well in terms of reviewed, with potential for increasing promoting pedestrian priority and in the effectiveness of necessary signage the provision of short term roadside and reducing unnecessary obstructions. parking that also acts as a further traffic calming measure. There is, however, potential for large sums of money to continue to be spent • Place streetscape improvements at on the public domain that could result the heart of future traffic in the over provision of street management schemes, thus playing a furnishings that dominate rather than key role in the enhancement of the complement the street scene. Such public realm. No traffic management schemes should seek to let the historic scheme is likely to be accepted or buildings and fabric speak for itself and successful unless accompanied by for the public realm to support and set sensitive, appropriate and off the environment rather than vie for imaginatively designed enhancement attention and obscure the quality of the works. townscape. Schemes should be kept Improving connectivity simple and understated. There is a need to ensure that new development is intermeshed with both the historic fabric and with movement

June 2004 35 7: Regeneration and management Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne patterns so that the town centre as a reference to historic fabric, uses, whole can benefit, and so that certain connections and patterns of movement. areas do not suffer and become Increased occupation of underused dysfunctional as a result. Although quite commercial buildings through LOTS- rightly recent regeneration initiatives type schemes could improve the have concentrated on Trelowarren connections between the core streets Street there is now a need to ensure that and the surrounding areas through the this benefit is spread into the opening up and effective surveillance of surrounding streets so that the assets of alleys and paths. the whole town can be capitalised on Camborne’s level topography adds to and become part of the general the potential of improved connectivity experience of the town rather than this at the centre, especially for cyclists, being confined to the main shopping pedestrians and disabled visitors. Its street. relatively wide roads and pavements Utilising and improving historic links enable consideration of increased and connections could have significant provision for pedestrian and cycle regeneration benefits. For instance there routes, especially in the back lanes are important pedestrian cross routes around the centre. across Trelowarren Street between Gas Street and the bus station area and the Coordinating change main car parks at Rosewarne Road and The diversity of players within the these should be strengthened to make regeneration process underlines the need the town work better as a whole, for co-ordinating action and reducing maximising its potential commercial uncertainty. There is a particular need area and spreading the benefit. for comprehensive conservation plans, Commercial Square is an important management plans and development example; here the recent enhancement plans for particular sites and areas of the scheme has weakened historic links town, to guide and inform future action. between Trelowarren Street and Chapel Street and so has failed to utilise to the full one of the town’s best streets with such architectural gems as the impressive Grade II listed 1828 Methodist Chapel and the 1899 Post Office. Improved pedestrian links and activity also depends on a greater sense of security. Increasing passive surveillance levels by increasing use, can be a more positive approach than obtrusive CCTV cameras. In other words drawing on the historic patterns of use in the town centre can be used to increase activity and a sense of ownership and responsibility. Stimulating the connections between places, making the centre more attractive at all times, and increasing uses and viability in ‘back street’ areas are all valid regeneration objectives, and can all benefit from

June 2004 36 7: Regeneration and management Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

8 Character Areas north of the church has further dislocated it from the rest of the town. Consequently, it now sits as an almost incidental appendage to the street scene 1: Church town and without an historically meaningful commercial core setting. (Fig 7 and Character Area summary sheet To the east of the church the hub of the 1) ancient radiating road pattern meets in front of the Market House (now the Statement of significance Berkeley Centre). This is the most This is the historic heart of the town overtly urban part of the town, the and its nineteenth-century commercial concentration of three storey town and civic core. The church complex with houses the densest in the settlement. its early stone crosses and the radiating The prestigious urban hierarchy of this road pattern meeting in front of the place is enhanced by the grandeur and former market house a reminder of the quality of the eighteenth-century Tyack’s pre-industrial church town. This area is Hotel and the broad sweep of the curve the most urban part of the town with an of Commercial Street rounding the impressive collection of eighteenth- corner into Basset Road. century inns and three storey townhouses. The exuberant nineteenth- century commercial premises, civic and religious buildings are a major asset for the town.

Establishing the area’s character

Camborne’s most urban area, this contains both the historic heart of the town, the church and market, and the nineteenth-century commercial and civic expansion along Trelowarren Street and at The Cross. The church and former rectory, and the surrounding graveyards and glebe land form an important green oasis in the centre of the urban area. The dappled light filtered through the mature trees and the stillness of the graveyard offer a quiet place of contemplation set away Church of St Martin and St Meriadoc from, but at the heart, of the town centre. The trees form an important green backdrop in the wider townscape. Untypically for Cornish towns the relatively low, squat tower of the church now makes little impression in town views, dwarfed and set behind the domineering late nineteenth-century Market House. Unfortunately, unsympathetic twentieth-century clearance and redevelopment to the The graveyard provides a green oasis at the centre of the urban area

June 2004 37 8: Character areas Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

Trelowarren Street, now the town’s principal commercial street, more than any other, shows the change from village to town that occurred during the nineteenth century. The diversity of building type, design and massing is very noticeable along its length, particularly due to its straight line and the relatively level, if slightly rolling, topography, so unusual in Cornish towns. Eaves levels fluctuate dramatically along the street with generally level eaves for runs of Trelowarren Street, a bustling local shopping street (Photograph: Charles Winpenny, two, three and four buildings followed Cornwall CAM.) by a dramatic drop or rise for an adjacent run. The street has a mix of domestic-scaled two storey terraced structures and urban three-storey structures displaying prestigious imported materials, high quality architect or at least pattern book designs and highly decorative architectural ornamentation. The urban buildings are more densely concentrated to the west end of the street with the east end being more domestic in character. Many of the three storey structures are quite isolated, with much lower lying neighbouring properties. Corner plots in particular are used for grander, more ostentatious designs such as the ‘Tower House’ with its corbelled circular corner turret and angled doorway. Such buildings serve as Non conformist chapel with imposing streetscape character, currently focal points along the length of the undergoing conversion to form an indoor street, relieving the unremitting linearity market of the streetscape. Although mainly shop and business premises, the street – an example of good, holistic urban also has originally non-commercial design. buildings including a number of chapels The street is still open to vehicles and now redundant and converted. now part of a one way system. However, At either end of the street are two of the despite the often constant flow of town’s most iconic buildings and views; traffic, the wide width of the road and the Market House and its clock tower to relative proportions of pavement and the west and Centenary Chapel to the carriageway means that the traffic does east. The straightness of the street not dominate the street experience. enables these views to be enjoyed over Indeed it possibly enhances the sense of most of its length, along with the bustle and commerce of the area. interesting self contained views. The Commercial Square forms a popular chapel has been cleverly skewed on its focal point set to the southern side of site to best respect the commercial street Trelowarren Street’s western end. This and provide such a spectacular end stop pedestrianised square currently functions as Camborne’s most

June 2004 38 8: Character areas Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne important civic space. A recent public realm enhancement scheme has created a formal enclosed square, framing the impressive Holman fountain with pleached limes, but unfortunately weakening links with Chapel Street, one of the town’s most architecturally impressive roads. The French style tree planting, though attractive, has no immediately obvious historical precedent or connection with the town. The buildings surrounding the square itself are of variable quality, mostly of late twentieth-century date. However the terracotta building set on the west corner with the main street has high streetscape value, as do the granite bank and Kings Cinema/Bingo hall and the grade II* Donald Thomas Centre (formerly the Literary Institute) at the Commercial Square, a popular meeting place north end of Chapel Street. The numerous benches here are well used by tired shoppers and as a convenient meeting place. Overall this refitted public space must be seen as a success for the town. Further shops are located along Cross Street, although here many are set within converted residential terraces. Throughout the town there are some superb and unique historic shopfronts that record the names of past Residential houses of Cross Street now businesses. However, many are of late converted for retail use twentieth-century date and often fail to relate and respect the building in which they are set, too often being standard, ‘anywhere’ fittings. The Cross forms an important late nineteenth-century civic focus in the town. Here a complete and strong group of important historic civic buildings is set around a complex road junction. The significant buildings here include the Passmore Edwards library, the municipal offices, the old fire station Former Council Chambers and Fire and the former public assembly rooms. Station, The Cross. Part of an important An impressive statue of Trevithick group of civic buildings at this crossroads cradling his steam engine stands in front of the library. The Masonic Lodge in Cross Street is also effectively part of

June 2004 39 8: Character areas Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne this civic group, being the end stop to views off the junction towards the town centre.

Within the Character Area there are also back plot areas and areas where the underlying urban grain has been lost. Gas Lane is the service road running along the backs of Trelowarren’s southern plots. To its south is the bus station which is well enclosed along its length, fronting onto Union Street. Back lane qualities of Gurney’s Lane Gurney’s Lane is an earlier back service road that follows a curving line, possibly associated with an ancient, pre-urban feature. It has a much older character with rubble boundary walls and outbuildings, some converted as shop units. The sense of enclosure here is very high, almost claustrophobic. To the north of Tyack’s Hotel is an area, formerly of back plots although developed in the late nineteenth century with several prestigious buildings The area to the north of Tyak’s Hotel is including the Camborne School of currently characterised by the loss of Mines (1882, now sadly lost) and the historic urban form adjacent and surviving Josiah Thomas Memorial Hall (1872, altered 1881, originally the Tehidy Working Men’s Archaeological potential Club). This area is now characterised by • This is the oldest part of the town its loss of urban form. Historic plot and has potential for important divisions that made sense of the place evidence concerning the origins and have been lost, such as the properties development of the town. that formerly fronted onto Church Street. New developments have failed to • Potential for evidence of the possible respect the character and historic Iron Age hillfort suggested in the underlying grain of the area and have townform set on the crest of the compounded this loss of place. The Aldi rising promontory. development fronts the church with • Potential for evidence of the possible poor screening to an un-landscaped car early Christian lann site park; the newly built retirement complex follows an illogical layout apparently for • Potential for evidence relating to the maximum return and density; and the market places of the town and their uninspiring architecture of the shopping evolution. precinct that replaced the nationally • Potential for information regarding important School of Mines adds little of the sequence of late medieval and value to the town. post-medieval structures, plot boundaries and general activities. • The standing built fabric holds potential for surviving fabric relating

June 2004 40 8: Character areas Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

to earlier structures, for evidence of valued and utilised as an urban green sequences of adaptation and space with wildlife potential. rebuilding. Potential for the discovery Reinstate the primacy of the church of earlier facades and shop fronts town core. built on earlier street frontages, now set back within later extensions. • The Market House, one of the town’s most important landmark buildings is Regeneration and management currently underused. This building, Reintegrate the church with the so symbolic of the town, is crucial to surrounding town. reinstating the primacy of this area in the urban hierarchy. It is a key target • The church is an important element for upgrading and could usefully of the town but at present is accommodate public usage such as a dislocated from it. By enhancing its tourist information point, community streetscape setting it can be facilities, daytime cafes and shops. reintegrated and used as a positive This building should once more be asset. the heart of the town. • Re-enclosure of the northern side of • Maintain and maximise the use of the Church Street would enhance its three-storey buildings that are setting and the general arrival concentrated in this area of town. experience to the town from the Underused upper storeys could north-west. This could be achieved provide valuable residential or office either through sensitive accommodation through a Living redevelopment reinstating the former Over The Shop type scheme. build line of the street or by screening the supermarket car park • Ensure that public realm schemes do with thick boundary planting (which not compete for attention with the would also extend the greening of the historic buildings. Keep treatments graveyard). here neutral, simple, uncluttered and of understated quality. Allow the • The open courtyard off Church Lane buildings and townscape qualities to and the ope running between the be seen and appreciated. former market house and the church could also benefit from upgrading, including improved boundary treatments.

• Within the churchyard the former

Parish Vestry and Clink building offers potential for reuse. A youth- related project could be of particular benefit here. It also offers interpretation opportunities that could be linked to citizenship education. Maximise the use of three storey buildings • The Spinney area to the west of the and keep the public realm uncluttered and church is to be enhanced as part of a understated local green space project and should help to improve a key pedestrian

route, much used by schoolchildren. The graveyard could also be better

June 2004 41 8: Character areas Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

Strengthen links between Trelowarren Street and the surrounding town.

• Although a lively and well used public space, some of the new fixtures of the Commercial Square enhancement are insensitively and poorly placed in townscape terms, notably the CCTV. A bank of street furniture along the southern side of

the square closes important links between Trelowarren Street and Chapel Street. Any future relocation of these facilities and opening up for pedestrian through-flow would usefully strengthen views and links between these two important streets, better integrating the town and Accumulated street clutter at the back capitalising on the quality of its entire of the square weakens important links historic environment. with Chapel Street

• The important pedestrian routes

across Trelowarren Street between Gas Street and the bus station area and the main car parks at Rosewarne Road could be strengthened. Any redevelopment of the bus station should seek to enhance rather than reduce pedestrian circulation opportunities. A covered walkway along New Connection Street has been suggested and could be Former Bible Christian Chapel on achieved as a self-supporting Rosewarne Road. Potentially important structure (as at Hays Wharf, building in strengthening links between Trelowarren Street and the surrounding London). The upgrading of this route town could offer a commercial boost to key historic buildings along its length. Two nonconformist chapels in particular could play a useful role in strengthening these links; to the chapel’s impressive stepped Trelowarren Street Methodist Church forecourt on Trelowarren Street (1908/9) and the former Bible could be restored further Christian Chapel on Rosewarne Road emphasising this important junction. (1871). The Trelowarren Street The Rosewarne Road converted chapel is to be converted to form an chapel, now an indoor market, is indoor market facility and could another key building with high usefully provide a side entrance off streetscape value and is in very New Connection Street, suitable for obvious need of upgrading, perhaps disabled access and well placed to under a THI or similar scheme. connect with the bus station redevelopment. The frontage railings

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Ensure shopfront and public realm treatments respect and enhance surviving historic features and character • There is great potential for the proposed shopfront enhancement scheme to improve some insensitive fittings and repair the surviving historic shop fronts of this area. The importance of first understanding the

surviving asset is crucial in this Stronger public realm management could programme. enhance important townscape focal points such as The Cross and Centenary • Further public realm improvements Chapel are planned for the town and there is a danger that rather than enhancing and setting off the streets to best effect, too much public realm interference will detract from and vie for attention with the surrounding buildings. Along Trelowarren Street the straightness of the street tends to

emphasis the preponderance of new poles, hanging baskets and tall lighting columns that can detract from the rich rhythms and colours of the local vernacular buildings, for example, the tall Victorian seaside promenade style lighting sits uncomfortably close to the second storey level gabled attic dormers. Good public realm schemes should be kept simple allowing the buildings

and the urban form to be seen and appreciated. reduce the dominance of cars in Enhance gateways and focal points favour of raising pedestrian priority. This Character Area includes a number With these improvements the quality of the most important gateways and of the historic environment at these focal points in the town including; the important points can be used to the central roundabout at the Commercial maximum potential for the good of Street and Church Road junction, the the town. junction of Cross Street and Reinstate a sense of place to areas of Commercial Street, Commercial Square the townscape currently and the east end of Trelowarren Street characterised by loss of grain. and Centenary Chapel. • A masterplanning exercise is required • These areas should be prioritised for to inform any future development enhancement including encouraging proposals for the area to the north of maximum building use and good Tyack’s Hotel. The piecemeal levels of upkeep, good public realm redevelopment of this part of the environments and measures to town has led to a disjointed

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townscape which fails to relate to its surroundings. Steps should be taken

to ensure that future developments better integrate with the surrounding town in terms of plot layout and use, connections and building massing. There are several surviving historic boundary walls which could be used to help regain the former logic of the area. Bus station redevelopment The potential redevelopment of the bus station site is a major opportunity for the town. To successfully fit into the surrounding townscape a number of issues should be considered. • The visual impact on the immediately surrounding townscape and the location and form of connections between any new development at the bus station and the rest of the town are key considerations. To the west of the station, Chapel Street has a large number of listed buildings and other significant historic buildings. There is potential to adapt the locally important cinema building to function as an arcade gateway to the new development; this could be a good solution in such a sensitive area. To the east, the relationship of the station with the smaller scaled industrial workers’ housing provides an opportunity to connect the town centre with the surrounding residential areas. To the north, Gas Lane could be beneficially upgraded, however it still functions as the service road for the southern plots of Trelowarren Street. Proposed connections to Trelowarren Street via New Connection Street have been discussed above. • The impact on roofscape views across the town should also be considered. Monolithically scaled roofs should be avoided and broken down into smaller, more appropriate spans.

June 2004 44 8: Character areas Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

Hill the development was set along the contours in tiered layers of housing. 2: Industrial workers’ Many of Camborne’s residential streets housing are notable in the Cornish context for (Fig 7 and Character Area summary sheet being unusually straight, level and 2) generously wide. The stone built terraced rows flanking either side are Statement of significance generally of a low two storey height. The gridded rows and terraces of This combination means that the industrial workers’ housing are a buildings do not enclose the street space dominant feature of the town. Set along as strongly as in many other Cornish wide, straight and level roads the low scenes. As a result there is a greater rising two storey cottages enjoy a great feeling of space, despite the density of sense of open-ness compared to other development, and the light levels and Cornish townscapes. The granite impact of the sky on the street scene is robustness of the buildings is lightened high. by the restrained use of ornamentation and bright colour to door and window The cottages are generally small and finishes. Long, thin rear gardens are an stone built with some variation in the integral part of this Character Area and use of materials. Most are of local killas an important factor in the nineteenth- stone with granite dressings including century industrialisation and move from lintels and quoins, others are completely country to town, which they document. of granite. Facades are relatively simple, plain, modest and well-balanced, with a Establishing the area’s character high degree of similarity throughout the street. The area has a robustness and The densely packed nineteenth-century solidity due to the monolithic mass and terraced rows of industrial housing are quality of these buildings. an integral part of the character of Camborne and form the largest Character Area of the town. The area is fairly pure in its use as housing, with very few other functions present here, virtually all shops and pubs being located in the central core of the town. The scattering of corner shops and pubs in this Area are generally well-preserved and help ensure the viability of the local communities.

To the north of the commercial core the Typical Camborne streetscapes of urban terraced rows run in ribbon industrial housing. Some variation in development along pre-nineteenth- terms of architectural detailing, but over all very uniform in character century roads. Then the new roads of the nineteenth-century expansion were laid out following earlier alignments of field systems and mine waste dumps. To the south and east of the commercial core the more strongly gridded pattern of new streets was laid out and imposed over the land. On the slopes of Beacon

June 2004 45 8: Character areas Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

Restrained and careful use of Trelowarren Street, the area to the north ornamentation and bright colour to following earlier landscape boundaries, architectural details enlivens the streets the earlier ribbon development and reduces any sense of monotony. following the principal roads of the Door and window lintels and jambs are town, and the later and more suburban sometimes enriched by vermiculated streets such as Enys Road, Hughville plasterwork and plain margins. Flowers Street and Wellington Road. or geometric roundels often feature in the more ornate examples. These plaster Archaeological potential details and door and window reveals and • Within this area there are sites of eaves are often now painted in bright high industrial archaeological colours. potential. As the mine sites went out In some areas the potential monotony of use the land was reclaimed and of so many similar houses is also built over. For example there is the reduced by the soft landscaping and potential for mining remains from personalisation of front yards and Wheal Gons and Camborne Vean gardens fronting onto the road. Gardens mines to be present south of the are a more obvious character feature in railway line. There are also a number the area to the north of the commercial of surface extractive sites including a core. In the gridded area to the quarry and clay extraction pit off immediate south of Trelowarren Street Beacon Fields. the houses are set straight onto the Regeneration and management pavement creating a hard streetscape and underlining the essentially urban Respect and celebrate the distinctive character. Even here, however, long rear character of the Area gardens are a critical part of the • Designation of this Area as part of character but are kept hidden from the Camborne’s proposed Conservation road by the remarkably long rows of Area would strengthen its cottages. The network of greener, gravel conservation management and help surfaced back roads however give ensure that its distinctive character is glimpses of these gardens with their not lost through insensitive collections of sheds and garages at the alterations to buildings and ends of plots. structures. Door and window Originally these developments would replacement, repointing and loss of have been more integrated with the boundary walls for car parking are all industrial sites for which they were built, issues affecting the integrity of the for example Dolcoath Avenue and Road character of this Area. Through are best understood in connection with understanding what elements make Dolcoath Mine and the houses on the up its special character, changes can slopes of the Trevu area are best be accommodated in a way that will understood in connection with the not result in a loss of the richness of Camborne Vean mine formerly situated the area. close to the railway. • Ensure that those planning Within this large Character Area there is regeneration in Camborne are aware variation in terms of date and relative of the contribution that these status of the houses. There is potential apparently modest houses make to to define more sensitive sub-Character the overall character of the town, and Areas such as the development on thus to its sense of place, and then to Beacon Hill, the Dolcoath development, the sense of well-being of the the strong urban grid to the south of population. Effort spent on

June 2004 46 8: Character areas Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

improving this highly valued part of the town’s historic environment will

be repaid in increased feelings of worth and belonging. Encouragement to undertake good quality maintenance work will also promote local building skills and trades, and so add to the economic activity and vitality of the whole town. Enhance key approach routes

• This Character Area includes several key approach routes to the town. As part of the overall aim of raising the profile and perception of the town these routes should be targeted for conservation repairs and upkeep as part of the possible THI scheme. Routes include College Street, Tehidy Historic character can be quickly eroded Road, Trevenson Street and through insensitive alterations and Centenary Street. repairs.

Ensure the bus station redevelopment respects this Character Area as well as the commercial core

• The suggested redevelopment of the bus station would have a substantial impact on several streets in this Character Area and it is important that any proposals respond to this

challenge. The Union Street frontage of the plot offers good opportunities to connect this Area with the town Redevelopment of the bus station and surrounding area needs to carefully centre. Views along Union Street and consider the impact on the surrounding Tolcarne Street are of critical residential area importance. Massing, scale and build line are critical factors in the success of this relationship.

June 2004 47 8: Character areas Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

3: The Industrial legacy

(Fig 7 and Character Area summary sheet 3)

Statement of significance Evidence of Camborne’s past industrial significance is retained in its townscape. Sites such as Wheal Harriet with its standing engine house and surrounding Wheal Harriett. Some attempts have former mining land, the Holman No 3 been made to interpret this interesting surviving industrial complex complex and nearby forge and workshop by the railway station, Stray Park engine house and the former dictates and informs the character of the CompAir Holman works tell of this town as we know it and experience it. important and successful past that Two distinct areas can be defined within shaped the town we see today. this Character Area; the large plots to the east of the town forming one Establishing the area’s character distinct unit and the smaller plots and Camborne’s importance as an industrial more comprehensively surviving working town is preserved in this industrial complexes around the railway shrinking Character Area. Previously station forming the second. substantially more of the town was The area to the east includes the industrialised and this area is likely to interesting surviving industrial contract further in the forthcoming archaeological complex around Wheal regeneration. Currently this is a closely Harriett shaft with standing engine defined area to the east of Trelowarren house and associated building (now Street and a thin strip along the railway. Elim Church). Efforts have been made Until recently the former mine sites to to interpret the archaeology of the site the immediate south of the railway, in and turn this green space into a useable the Vean Road area, would have been recreation amenity for the town. The included, but these are now being siting of a short terrace of modern redeveloped for housing. houses fails to take account of the This Area is characterised by the effects character of the surrounding area in on the landscape and townscape of terms of urban design, orientation, industrial mining activity and associated materials or architectural design and ancillary and engineering works. This detailing, weakening the character of the effect is still an important part of the area. character of the town today; in an un- Equally Kerrier District Council Offices redeveloped form as at Wheal Harriet, in (formerly the CompAir Holman an evolved and modernised form as at Offices) sit unhappily in their location, the former CompAir Holman works, facing the domestic scaled suburban and in a reclaimed and completely semi’s and terraces of Dolcoath Avenue. redeveloped form as at the former The massing, materials and design of the Holman number 1 works, now Tesco’s. tower block being wholly alien to its Although, with the recent closure of context. CompAir Holman, one of the last traces of the traditional industrial economic The adjacent CompAir Holman works base of the town has now gone, it still are generally lower structures and better

June 2004 48 8: Character areas Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne screened from view. The subdivided roof structure of some of the buildings successfully breaks down the colossal mass of the complex and its impact on roofscape views. The generally level topography of the area also reduces the impact of the works on townscape views. The Tesco superstore and car parks is another industrial-scale development.

Built on the site of one of the once Kerrier District Council offices sit numerous Holman works, this site is unhappily in their suburban residential critically important in the approach to location Camborne from the east, with the roundabout now forming the main arrival gateway to the town. Unfortunately the design of the superstore fails to recognise the importance of its relationship with its setting and blights this gateway and the equally important elevation to Wesley Street and its relationship with Trelowarren Street. Aesthetically, it is not a good neighbour to the Centenary The former CompAir Holman site and Chapel, but at least does not vie for surrounding area offer a major potential architectural supremacy with it. brownfield regeneration opportunity

The area around the railway station is more intact and although still industrial in character has a much tighter grain that is better absorbed and assimilated by the rest of the surrounding townscape – it has remained integrated with the town. The only surviving historic Holman works is in partial use with several light industrial businesses working out of the buildings. However, other important buildings in the Tesco’s currently fails to respond to its complex, such as the former manager’s important townscape position at one of residence, are disused and clearly in need the major gateways to the town of urgent conservation repair and reuse.

Opposite is a former forge, workshop and office of the railway company. The station is a modest collection of Historically it has functioned as a railway brick building on the up-platform, mid related working depot and repair shop. twentieth-century footbridge over the This complex includes scorria waste line and a barrier controlled level blocks visible in its rubble wall fabric. crossing. A recent improvement scheme To its rear the clock tower over the yard has added planting, modern shelters and is an attractive feature. Again this information boards to this important complex seems underused and in need arrival point for the town. of attention.

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Archaeological potential • Within this area there are sites of high industrial archaeological potential both representing the extractive mining past of the area and the internationally significant engineering works of the town.

• The Holman’s No. 3 works (now

Tesco’s) may retain below ground

remains of interest. Granite bench at Wheal Harriett • The former Holman’s work by the dedicated ‘To the memory of all those who worked and dies in all Cornish railway also retains standing buildings mines’. There is further potential for the of potential archaeological interest enhancement of this site as an amenity which could merit recording prior to for the town redevelopment. • Archaeological remains of the Wheal Harriett site are clearly visible above

ground and have been consolidated to some extent. Further archaeological remains below ground are likely.

• Standing buildings and remains related to the railway line also feature within this area including the railway forge, workshop and office to the Redevelopment of the former Holman site immediate north of the station. offers an exciting heritage-led regeneration opportunity for the town. Regeneration and management as a positive part of its successful Celebrate the industrial past of the future. town and take it into the town’s future • Wheal Harriet, in particular, can be further enhanced as an interpretation, • The character represented in this leisure and recreation facility for the Area is under threat and has steadily town. been shrinking since the early twentieth century, if not before. • Redevelopment of the former Although its redevelopment is seen Holman site opposite the railway as the priority of a number of the station in Trevu Road should seek to regeneration initiatives for the town, save for the town the only surviving it is important for the future of the Holman site, once so numerous and town that evidence of this crucial important in the growth of the town part of its story is not totally swept and the development of the Cornish away. Instead complexes such as Industrial Revolution itself. There is a Wheal Harriet, the surviving Holman need for a detailed understanding of site and the forge and railway the significance of the surviving workshop can serve valid roles in the buildings and archaeological potential future of the town, ensuring that the of the site prior to detailed town’s successful and unique development proposals being drawn industrial past is celebrated and used up. Equally a number of the

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buildings are likely to require an develop its role as an information archaeological record of them being and interpretation point for the town. made prior to and during Improved pedestrian signage from redevelopment. Undoubtedly there the station to the town centre may are many significant and characterful also be useful, possibly part of a buildings here that can once again study of pedestrian movement become powerful assets to the town through the town, coupled with an and are worthy and capable of audit and review of necessary securing good future uses. signage. There may be future pressure for change due to possible Enhancement of major gateway upgrading and alteration of the level points to the town crossings along the urban length of • The Tesco roundabout at the the railway. Such works and junction of Wesley Street, Roskear alternative arrangements may have an Road and Foundry Road is one of impact on the character of the area. the major gateway points for the Redevelopment of a significant town and is in need of enhancement. brownfield site – CompAir Holman Currently it is dominated by the Works, Foundry Road Tesco supermarket and garage. Some form of boundary planting to lightly • The recent closure of the CompAir screen the supermarket would re- Holman works has presented the enclose the space throwing attention town with a large brownfield site for back to the attractive terraced row of redevelopment. This has the buildings that better introduce the potential to have a major positive town. Some of these structures are, impact in the regeneration of the however, in need of conservation town. Former CompAir Holman attention and could usefully be staff, machinery and buildings are targeted as priorities by the proposed already being redeployed by specialist THI scheme due to their prominent engineering businesses. A position. Masterplanning exercise has been commissioned to consider the • The boundary treatments of the potential for further mixed-use Tesco supermarket to Foundry Road development of the site. Planning for and Wesley Street could also be it should seek to understand the considered for upgrading. There is character of the immediate setting further potential for soft landscaping and its wider context within the town improvements aimed at better and use this understanding to ensure integrating the development with its that its reuse, while unmistakably of surrounding townscape. Access its time, successfully integrates with through the area and connections to the surrounding historic townscape. the surrounding townscape could Massing issues are crucial, as are the also be improved. impact the development will have on • The railway station and Trevu Road critical gateway approaches to the form another key gateway that could town. The potential to include benefit from enhancement. The redevelopment of KDC’s offices redevelopment of the nearby former either within this major project or in Holman site and adjacent forge and the medium to longer term should workshop will clearly have a positive also be considered. effect on this area but general public realm improvements may also be beneficial. The station itself could

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4: South west villa suburbs

(Fig 7 and Character Area summary sheet 4)

Statement of significance There is a suburban area of middle-class residences to the south west of the urban core. Large villas and genteel residences, set within bounded grounds Trevu House, Trevu Road. A large house but highly visible from the road, give the set within its own grounds area a salubrious character. Painted render and classical architectural references are common features of the area. Some of the buildings are architect designed. Planting softens the built environment and the sloping topography of Trevu Road provides interesting views to the town below. Establishing the area’s character Camborne boasts what may be regarded Detached villas on Trevu Road set within as a surprisingly large number of middle- class residences, mainly located to the mature gardens south west of the urban core. Buildings set along the relatively straight and level roads of Basset Road and Street, South Terrace and Pendarves Road fall into this category, as do the residences of Trevu Road, climbing up Beacon Hill.

Building types range from large houses set within their own grounds, such as Trevu House and Tregenna House, detached villas on Basset Road, semi- detached pairs and the line of linked- Terraced villa-type housing, South pairs in South Terrace. Although built as Terrace residences many of these substantial The grain of this area is distinctly looser buildings have been converted to than the tight repetition of the densely alternative uses including hotels, packed industrial workers’ terraces and guesthouses, medical practices and rows. Here land plots and houses are private offices. A number of purpose- more generous, having an air of built public structures are also found prosperity and exclusivity that give the within this part of town including the area its salubrious character. twentieth-century Police Station at the southern end of Basset Road, the Proportions and features are often Community Centre (former the Tehidy substantial with houses displaying Estate Office), the Roman Catholic architectural forms and finishes not Church and the former Grammar normally seen elsewhere in town. School on Trevu Road. ‘Wedding cake’ stucco render, with

June 2004 52 8: Character areas Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne classical detailing, painted in pastel Archaeological potential colours and neutral tones, are common • in the Basset Road villas. Ostentatious There is some potential for industrial porches, doors and windows are another archaeological remains but more architectural expression of the likely is potential for post medieval prosperity of the area. activity. Gardens and planting are crucial to the Regeneration and management area’s character, with the majority of the Recognise and enhance the residences set behind front gardens, importance and quality of this area with the exception of the north side of as a key approach to the town centre Basset Street. The planting and mature trees of this area contribute to the • The high quality of the buildings and texture of the wider townscape, being the prestige of the leafy streetscapes one of the three main green spaces of here fly in the face of Camborne’s the town. Unlike other Cornish suburbs, poor image. Several key approach however, planting is generally not used routes to the town centre run to screen houses and provide privacy. through this area providing an Indeed, the houses are purposely set excellent introduction to the town. well forward in their plots, designed to By maintaining and enhancing its be seen and admired. Instead, plants and quality this area can effectively trees are used to complement and add to counter the town’s negative image. the architectural diversity and Respect and celebrate the ornamentation of the attractive and architectural quality of the area impressive building facades, for example sub-exotic palms complement and Designation of this area as part of amplify the distinctive architectural Camborne’s proposed Conservation character of Basset Road. Area would strengthen the conservation management of the Boundary walls and gates feature in the excellent building stock here. character of the area. Again, not Replacement doors and windows, designed to visually block views to the extensions, subdivisions of plots, loss houses, they simply denote the division of boundary walls for parking and between private and public realms and conversions from residential use to are used as a vehicle for further office and flat accommodation architectural ornamentation and display. threaten the area’s character. This area includes several impressive Through understanding the elements approach routes and entrances to the making up its special character, town; views down Basset Road settle on changes can be accommodated in a the sumptuous 3-storey terracotta way that will not result in a loss of building at the corner of Church Lane. the richness of the area. To the west of this Area, but outside the study area, are the open spaces of the Recreation Grounds and playing fields near Crane. They contribute to the Area’s air of ornamentation and pleasure taking, and also draw people from all walks of life through this well-to-do area, ensuring that most of Camborne’s populace feel the positive impact of its character. The richness of the area is produced by the conglomeration of high quality details. Such features require protection June 2004 53 8: Character areas Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

Recognise, respect and enhance the importance of planting in the area • A common issue for the area is the loss of gardens and planting, especially to accommodate poorly landscaped car parking. This has resulted in a loss of the lushness of the area and the creation of a starker, harder townscape. Planting has been identified as an important character feature and should be incorporated into development plans here. • Equally inappropriate is the use of planting to totally screen properties from view; partial shielding is in character, but total blockading is alien to the character of this area.

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Park Road. This layout design results in a muddle of fronts and backs. To the 5: Rosewarne west the development is arranged in a ‘T’ form of cul-de-sacs and consists of (Fig 7 and Character Area summary sheet 5) bungalows and their gardens set in uniform plots. Statement of significance Despite this large-scale redevelopment A secluded and private, inward-looking the general character and sense of the area, formerly the houses and grounds nineteenth-century house, its grounds of Rosewarne and Parc-Bracket. and estate is retained because of the Although redeveloped in the late survival of several important elements. twentieth century as housing estates, the Strongly defined boundaries character of the grand house complex is • The high rubble boundary walls and retained due to the survival of key hedgebank enclosing the park, buildings and landscape planting. The running along Tehidy Road, mature trees surviving from the former Eastern Lane and Park Road. parkland have town-wide impact and importance. Camborne’s car parks are Impressive surviving buildings on land taken from the gardens, • The house itself set in an area of the including Rosewarne’s walled kitchen former garden spared from garden. development. • A number of gate lodges marking Establishing the area’s character the entrances to the estate; to the This Character Area comprises the south west on Tehidy Road, South former house and grounds of Lodge on Parc-Bracket Street, and Rosewarne (now Gladys Holman north east on Eastern Lane. House) and Parc-Bracket (now the

Conservative Club), together with an area of allotments to the north and the town centre car parks to the south. Despite the close proximity to the town centre the area has a secluded, inward- looking character, almost rural in nature. Rosewarne dates from c1815 and was the home of the Harris family, local mine and land owners. The grade II* listed house has been converted to alternative uses and the majority of the High boundary walls continue to define extensive surrounding gardens and the former park land, as here at Park parkland was developed as a residential Road estate in the 1960s. Two distinct developments can be identified; to the east semi-detached houses and terrace runs of four to eight houses are arranged around a pattern of closes and cul-de- sacs. Extensive open public space to the front of houses has an access network of footpaths, while the enclosed gardens to the backs are served by the feeder roads that exit onto Eastern Lane and

A number of gate lodges survive marking the entrances to the house and grounds June 2004 55 8: Character areas Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

• The rather ornamental Home Farm, These features all serve to distinguish the complex to the east of the the former estate as an entity separate to house. and inaccessible from the surrounding Remnant vestiges of the ornamental parkland town; bounded by high enclosing walls and gardens and screens of mature trees, with entry and exit controlled at gate lodges, and an • The walled garden to the south of the house and farm, retained as a air of self-sufficiency generated by the well-enclosed car park. farm and walled gardens. The area retains an inward looking character, • The boundary belt planting of the maintaining a high degree of privacy and park. seclusion away from the bustle of the • The avenue of trees marking out surrounding town. the original drive, approaching the The mature trees play an important role house from the north east and within the wider townscape, defining sweeping through the park (now a this as one of three green areas within central path in the housing estate). the settlement. Parc-Bracket shows similar characteristics but on a much smaller scale. This is the former home of the engineer Woolfe, and retains a sheltered position off Tehidy Road guarded by boundary walls and an impressive gateway. Again, its mature trees are important in the wider townscape, forming a green backdrop to the town’s main car park to the east. The area of allotments to the north of this Character Area forms a further important urban green space.

The two car parks to the south of the Remnant ornamental parkland and Character Area are taken from the gardens remain. The mature trees gardens of Rosewarne and Parc-Bracket. provide a green backdrop to the town centre. The northern area, formerly the walled kitchen garden of Rosewarne has rubble stone walls forming a tightly enclosed space. The sense of enclosure is added to by the mature trees of the gardens beyond. The area has been divided into rows of parking bays with the introduction of tree and shrub screens, subdividing the space. The southern car park is much more open to the town with a post and rail boundary to the pavement and road. Some degree of enclosure is provided by the mature A tree lined avenue originally linking the trees of Parc-Bracket to the north west. North Lodge with the Rosewarne House survives as a footpath within the 1960’s estate development

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Archaeological potential There is high potential for archaeological remains of the former parkland and garden archaeology of Rosewarne House. • Evidence within the walls of the northern car park provides evidence of the area as a kitchen garden for Rosewarne. Blocked doors, roof lines of lean-to sheds and hot houses are visible. As are nails that once The thriving allotment gardens off Eastern Lane. An important amenity for the town supporting fruit trees trained against and a feature of urbanisation the south facing wall. • Elements of the former landscaping Preservation Order protection and and planting of the gardens and replanting strategies. wider estate survive, such as the tree • The enclosing boundary wall and lined avenue. Such features hedgebank should be maintained. document the life of the grand house. Maintain the allotment fields • There are early 20th century reports of a Romano-British coin hoard • Resist any plans for the being recovered from the parkland redevelopment of the allotment during the clearance of a mound or gardens on Eastern Lane by ensuring possible prehistoric barrow. The the plots are well used and that the hoard of about one hundred association is thriving. Allotments are Constantinian coins (306-337 AD) a good amenity in their own right and was found within a pottery urn. an historically significant feature of Therefore there may be further urbanisation. potential for prehistoric and Enhance the car parks as important Romano-British archaeology in the arrival points area. Until recently the Rosewarne car parks Regeneration and management have suffered from under investment. Maintain the estate and parkland They are important arrival points to the character of the area town and with the proposed commercial development of Camborne need to be • Ensure the retention and celebration functioning well, helping to attract of the historic buildings of the two people to the town and creating positive estates; the houses themselves, gate first impressions. lodges and farm. Interpretation

would help people understand their • Low natural surveillance levels and significance. high enclosure of the northern car park has led to its underuse. There is • Manage and maintain planting levels, scope for a review of its use and in particular the trees that play an layout that would increase pedestrian important role in the wider footfall and surveillance and help to townscape. Management and overcome the current lack of a sense protection plans should be in place of security. The boundary walls including an audit of existing should be maintained as should the specimens, adequate Tree open-ness of its interior. The space has the potential to become an asset

June 2004 57 8: Character areas Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

The Rosewarne car parks form an important arrival point for many visitors to the town. The mature trees of Rosewarne House form an attractive backdrop to the town centre

The northern car park was formerly the walled kitchen garden of Rosewarne House and has scope for some level of interpretation of this former function for the town, with numerous possibilities for multi-functional use including, for example, a performance area. • The car parks would benefit from some public realm enhancement (especially the southern area). This could usefully include consideration of surfacing, lighting and boundary treatments and relocation and possible screening of the prominent recycling facilities. • The car parks are also good points to supply information about the town and interpretation of its historic significance and development. The kitchen garden area itself has an interesting story to tell.

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Technical Appendix: GIS metadata information, definitions, explanations and suggestions for use

This section comprises a technical appendix providing metadata, full definitions, explanations and suggestions for use of the geographic information collated, created and provided as the base for the figure sequence bound at the back of the report. Five GIS- based datasets have been created for the study. These comprise:

• Extent of the study area: defines the c1907 settlement boundary. • Historic development: defines the geographical growth of the settlement as mapped from available cartographic sources. • Historic topography: details the historic ‘building blocks’ that have shaped the development and evolution of the settlement. • Surviving historic components: depicts survival patterns and statutory designation coverage of the settlement’s surviving historic buildings and features. • Archaeological potential: indicates the potential for urban archaeological remains. • Character areas: illustrates the character areas distinguished within the town as defined in chapter 5.

The datasets (known as shapefiles) have been created using ESRI’s ArcView GIS. Each shapefile comprises a number of polygons (areas), and/or lines and/or points depicting the spatial extent of the various areas, sites and monuments of interest identified during the study. These features are attributed with two types of information; the first describes the nature and form of the site, area or monument itself (eg. name, date etc) whilst the second describes the context of the dataset’s creation (eg. creator, date created, original source, capture scale). Attribution of these shapefiles has been guided by the project’s requirements and as far as possible the attribute values adhere to current CCC HER heritage information standards.

Extent of the study area (Figure 1)

This dataset forms the basis for Figure 1. The detailed characterisation and analysis of urban topography and historic survival that together form the primary elements of this study are closely focused on the historic urban extent of the settlement. For the purposes of this project this area is defined as that which is recognisably ‘urban’ in character on the second edition Ordnance Survey (OS) Revision 1:2500 map, c1907. Outlying rural settlements that have been incorporated into the modern urban area since c1907 are intentionally excluded.

June 2004 59 Technical Appendix Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey Camborne

The study area GIS shapefile dataset is attributed with the following values: Shapefile primitive: polygon (area) Shapefile attribute properties: Attribute Name Field type Width Description example Study_area Field Character 25 Settlement Name Camborne Description Field Character 250 Brief description. Urban extent c1907 Capture_scale Field Character 20 GIS digitisation scale 1:2500 Creation_date Field Character 25 Creation date (ddmmyyyy) 20082001 User Field Character 25 Creator initials KSN Project_code Field Numeric 25 CSUS Project Code 2001013 Source Field Character 250 Information source c1907 2nd Edition OS Revision

Ordnance Survey 1:2500 2nd edition (1907) (Figure 2)

This figure overlays the primary study area on the second edition Ordnance Survey map 1:25 000 of c1907.

Historic development (Figure 3)

This dataset forms the basis for Figure 3. Phased historic development mapping was created by carrying out a traditional map regression and comparison with the geographical extent of the settlement mapped from a series of available historic map and aerial photograph sources. Generally only overtly urban features have been mapped therefore outlying sites (eg. industrial complexes) may not be featured on the mapping until the site/working has stopped, and the land was reclaimed and re-developed as part of the expanding town. For Camborne the historic map and photographic sequence included: • 1807 Ordnance Survey’s 2-inch drawings for the 1813 Ordnance Survey first edition 1” to the mile map • 1841 Tithe Map of Camborne parish • c1880 1st Edition Revision Ordnance Survey 1:2500 (1880) • c1907 2nd Edition Revision Ordnance Survey 1:2500 (1908) • 1946 RAF air photographs • 2002 Ordnance Survey Landline 1:2500 This mapping illustrates the original focal points of the settlement and its subsequent evolution. It highlights areas likely to have the oldest surviving remains and archaeological potential. The historic development GIS shapefile dataset is attributed with the following values: Shapefile primitive: polygon (area) Shapefile attribute properties Attribute Name Field type Width Description example Study_area, Field Character 25 Settlement Name Camborne

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Historic_phase Field Character 25 Period of settlement growth c1840 – c1880 Source, Field Character 250 Original data source 1880 1st Edition OS Revision Creation_date, Field Character 20 Creation date (ddmmyyyy) 20082001 Capture_scale, Field Character 20 GIS digitisation scale 1:2500 User, Field Character 25 Creator initials KSN Project_code Field Numeric 25 CSUS Project Code 2001013

Historic settlement topography (Figure 4)

This dataset forms the basis for Figure 4. This mapping seeks to define the ‘building blocks’ that have shaped the development and evolution of the settlement. Historic settlement topography includes plan-form and relief, hydrology, blocks of particular types of housing or building (eg. industry, ecclesiastical etc), burgage plots and other well defined land allotment patterns, historic road routes and streets, railways etc. The historic settlement topography GIS shapefile dataset is attributed with the following values:

Shapefile primitive: polygon/polyline/points Shapefile attribute properties Attribute Name Field type Width Description example Study_area, Field Character 25 Event Record Camborne Topo_descrip Field Character 250 Topographic description Glebe land Period Field Character 25 Epoch or period Medieval Creation_date, Field Character 20 Date of creation of dataset 20082001 Capture_scale, Field Character 20 Digitisation Scale of dataset 1:1250 User Field Character 25 Person responsible for data capture KSN Project_code Field Numeric 25 CSUS Project Code 2001013

Surviving historic components (Figure 5)

This dataset forms the basis for Figure 5. It seeks to illustrate the survival patterns and statutory designation coverage of the settlement’s surviving historic features. Generally these features are standing buildings, but some other historic features, such as boundary walls, leat systems, gateways and stone crosses, are also included. Scheduled Monuments (red features). 'Scheduling' is shorthand for the process through which nationally important sites and monuments are given legal protection by being placed on a list, or 'schedule'. English Heritage takes the lead in identifying sites in England which should be placed on the schedule by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. A schedule has been kept since 1882 of monuments whose preservation is given priority over other land uses. The current legislation, the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979, supports a formal system of Scheduled Monument Consent for any work to a designated monument. Scheduling is the only legal protection specifically for archaeological sites. The Scheduled Monument data has been derived from GIS datasets maintained by Technical Services, Cornwall County Council. The mapping was last updated on 05/12/2003 and mapping is therefore

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accurate to that date. Contact the Historic Environment Record team, HES, Cornwall County Council or English Heritage for potential updated changes to this designation coverage. Listed Buildings (yellow features) identify those buildings of special architectural or historic interest as defined by the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990. Under this legislation the government maintains a list of buildings of special architectural or historic interest, and operates a Listed Building Consent process to control works which affect them. The Listed Building GIS data has been derived from GIS datasets provided by Kerrier District Council on 03/07/2002 and mapping is therefore accurate to that date. Contact Kerrier District Council’s Conservation Officer for potential updated changes to this designation coverage. Conservation Areas and proposed Conservation Areas (red outline and dashed red outline) identify areas of historical or architectural interest as defined by the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990. This is mostly used in urban areas, although as with Carn Brea can be used in more rural settings. The legislation places a duty on local planning authorities to identify the special qualities and formulate proposals for the conservation and enhancement of Conservation Areas, known as Conservation Area Statements or Appraisals. The proposed conservation area depicted was originally proposed in the Redruth CISI report. Any subsequent designation resulting from this recommendation would be driven by Kerrier District Council’s Conservation Officer and would go through the usual public enquiry procedures. Contact Kerrier District Council’s Conservation Officer for potential updated changes to this designation coverage. Registered Historic Park and Gardens (green features) have been added from a national record of England's historic parks and gardens, maintained by English Heritage, since the 1980s. It records gardens of special historic interest ranging from town gardens and public parks to great country estates. Parks and Gardens included within this national register are not subject to additional statutory controls. However PPG15 guides planning authorities to take account of the need to protect registered parks and gardens when preparing development plans and in determining planning applications.

Historic buildings (dark blue features) are also illustrated. This category does not convey a statutory designation, although it could form a useful basis for creating a list of locally important buildings. Buildings shown here are surviving structures that pre-date c1907 (ie they are shown on the c1907 OS 2nd edition). In addition to this definition some buildings post dating c1907 are also included if they are part of the same development as buildings shown on the c1907 OS 2nd edition (ie part of a street clearly under construction at the time of mapping, or a later extension to an historic building), or if they post date this nominal cut off date but are of significant townscape quality or are important historic features of the town. This coverage is generated first by a desk- based comparison of current OS Landline and OS MasterMap mapping and historic mapping, with the identified buildings then checked on a site visit. Historic plots (light blue features) identify plots (often gardens) that remain unaltered from the c1907 OS 2nd edition map. Plot size and shape and uniformity or irregularity of plots within different parts of the settlement are key factors in grain and historic character and therefore this information also feeds in to character analysis, survival levels and patterns and identifying areas of loss of townscape grain and character. Historic plots are identified through modern and historic OS map comparison followed by corroboration in the field.

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This dataset is effectively a scaled down GIS version of the CCC HER/SMBR database and the attribute fields represent the minimum data information requirements for inclusion in the CCC HER. The surviving historic components GIS shapefile dataset is attributed with the following values: Shapefile primitive: polygon/polyline/points Shapefile attribute properties Attribute Name Field type Width Description example Name Field Character 250 Name Camborne, Church Street Site_type Field Character 250 Site Type Church Broad_term Field Character 25 Broad site type term Place of Worship Class Field Character 100 Site type class Religious, Ritual & Funerary Site_id Field Numeric 10.5 Unique PRN HER/SMR database 26680 Form Field Character 50 Condition of site type Extant Start Field Character 10 Start date of feature -specific End Field Character 25 End date of feature –specific Period Field Character 25 Epoch / century of feature MED Sam_no Field Character 25 Scheduled Monument number (if applicable) Grade Field Character 25 Listed building number SW 64 SW 10/37 Short_desc Field Character 250 Max 250 characters description Church of St Martin and... Bibliography Field Character 250 Source material used to identify feature Parish Field Character 100 Local Authority District Kerrier Project_code Field Character 10 CSUS Project Code 2000013 Feat_code Field Numeric 3 Code to distinguish legends for features 3 Capture_scale Field Numeric 10 Capture Scale of digitisation 1:2500 User Field Character 25 Creator initials KSN

Archaeological potential (Figure 6)

This dataset forms the basis for Figure 6. It indicates the potential for urban archaeological remains, although it must be emphasised that this depiction of potential is indicative, not definitive, and only future archaeological investigation and research can test and refine its value. An understanding of the potential is broadly derived from the historic extent of the settlement itself. In simple terms, any location within the area developed to c1907 is regarded as having the potential for standing or buried archaeological features; the earlier settlement core (as shown by the 1840 Tithe map) may have more complex and deeply stratified deposits. The figure also identifies a number of sites and areas of known historic significance: ie those where the presence of a significant structure or feature can be identified from historic maps or documentary sources but does not now survive above ground. Points are used to approximately locate features where the available sources are not adequate to map as a polygon specific location. It should be noted that there is also a proven potential within the area for the survival of archaeological remains that predate or are unrelated to the development of the town, particularly prehistoric and/or early medieval sites. In the absence of specific information

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such as reports of finds or antiquarian references the potential presence of such sites is difficult to predict. This dataset is effectively a scaled down GIS version of the CCC HER/SMR database and the attribute fields represent the minimum data information requirements for inclusion in the CCC HER. The archaeological potential GIS shapefile dataset is attributed with the following values: Shapefile primitive: polygon/polyline/points Shapefile attribute properties Attribute Name Field type Width Description example Name Field Character 250 Name Camborne, Rablings Sawmills Site_type Field Character 250 Site Type Sawmill Broad_term Field Character 25 Broad site type term Class Field Character 100 Site type class Site_id Field Numeric 10.5 Unique PRN HER/SMR database 40507 Form Field Character 50 Condition of site type Site Of Start Field Character 10 Start date of feature -specific 1877 End Field Character 25 End date of feature -specific 1908 Period Field Character 25 Epoch / century of feature 19 Sam_no Field Character 25 N/A Grade Field Character 25 N/A Short_desc Field Character 250 Max 250 characters description Rablins Sawmills is rec… Bibliography Field Character 250 Source material used to identify feature Kelly’s directory 1902 Parish Field Character 100 Local Authority District Kerrier Project_code Field Character 10 CSUS Project Code PR1013 Feat_code Field Numeric 3 Code to distinguish legends for features 2 Capture_scale Field Numeric 10 Capture Scale of digitisation 1:2500 User Field Character 25 Creator initials KSN

Character areas (Figure 7)

This dataset forms the basis for Figure 7 and the Character Area summary sheets. The CSUS investigation, in addition to identifying the broad elements of settlement character that define Camborne as a whole, identified five distinct Character Areas within the town’s historic (pre-1907) urban extent (see Section 5; Fig 7 and Character Area summary sheets 1-5). Character area 1: Church town and commercial core Character area 2: Industrial workers’ housing Character area 3: South west villa suburbs Character area 4: The industrial legacy Character area 5: Rosewarne These Character Areas are differentiated from each other by their varied historic origins, functions and resultant urban topography, by the processes of change which have affected each subsequently (indicated, for example, by the relative completeness of historic fabric, or significant changes in use and status), and the extent to which these

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elements and processes are evident in the current townscape. In simple terms, each Character Area may be said to have its own individual ‘biography’ which has determined its present character. Taken with the assessment of overall settlement character, the five Character Areas offer a means of understanding the past and the present. In turn, that understanding provides the basis for a positive approach to planning future change which will maintain and reinforce the historic character and individuality of each area and the town as a whole - sustainable local distinctiveness. The character areas GIS shapefile dataset is attributed with the following values: Shapefile primitive: polygon Shapefile attribute properties Attribute Name Field type Width Description example Study_area, Field Character 25 Event Record Camborne Char_Area_Name Field Character 250 Character Area name The industrial legacy Creation_date, Field Character 20 Date of creation of dataset 20082001 Capture_scale, Field Character 20 Digitisation Scale of dataset 1:2500 User, Field Character 25 Person responsible for data capture KSN Project_code Field Numeric 25 CSUS Project Code 2001013

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Sources

Published Sources and Documents: Acton, B, 1996. Exploring Cornwall’s Tramway Trails, Vol. I, Landfall Publications Barton, DB, 1978. A history of Copper Mining in Cornwall and Devon, D Bradford Barton Barton, DB, 1989. Tin Mining and Smelting in Cornwall, D. Bradford Barton Cahill, N, 2002. Cornwall Industrial Settlements Initiative, Camborne, Cornwall County Council Carter, C, 1998. Early Engineers around Camborne, Jnl of the Trevithick Society, 25 Cornwall Committee for Rescue Archaeology, 1981. 6th Annual Report 1980-81 Cornwall Committee for Rescue Archaeology, 1982. 7th Annual Report 1981-82 Ferguson, J, 2000. Forged and Founded in Cornwall, Cornish Hillside Publications. Hamilton-Jenkin, AK, 1964. Mines and Miners of Cornwall Vol. 10. Truro Bookshop Hollowood, B, 1951. Cornish Engineers, Holman’s Morrison, TA, 1980. Cornwall’s Central Mines, The Northern District, 1810-1895, Alison Hodge Morrison, TA, 1983. Cornwall’s Central Mines, The Southern District, 1810-1895, Alison Hodge Osborne, JA, and Thomas, D, 1986. Victorian and Edwardian Camborne, Osborne and Thomas Thomas, C, 1976. The Christian Antiquities of Camborne, H.E.Warne Thomas, D, 1997. Camborne, Chalford Thomas, J, 1987. The Wheels Went Around – The story of Camborne Town, Dyllansow Truran Strategic, policy and programme documents: Cornwall County Council, 1997. Cornwall Structure Plan Cornwall County Council. Local Transport Plan 2001-2006 CPR Regeneration, 2004. How to regenerate Camborne, Pool and Redruth. Action Plan Kerrier District Council, 1999. Kerrier Local Plan Deposit Draft Kerrier District Council, 2001. Shopfronts and signs. A guide to good design and best practice Kerrier District Council, 2003. Camborne, Tuckingmill, Roskear. Townscape Heritage Initiative Stage One Application Kerrier District Council, 2003. Project Outline Proposal for Camborne Town Centre Improvements (phase 2) and Shop Front Enhancement Scheme Llewelyn-Davies, in association with Atlantic Consultants, Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick, CSMA Consultants, 2001. Camborne – Pool –Redruth, Urban Framework Plan Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 2003. Sustainable communities in the South West: Building for the future

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Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 2001. Regional Planning Guidance for the South West (RPG 10) The Objective One Partnership for Cornwall and Scilly, 2000. Objective One programme for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly 2000-2006, Single programming document Historic maps: 1807 OS 2-inch drawings 1841 Tithe Map of Camborne parish 1880 OS 25 inch map 1908 OS 25 inch map

Websites: English Heritage, Images of England Tin Country Partnership, community regeneration and the Integrated Area Plan - www.tincountry.co.uk Camborne Pool Redruth Regeneration – www.cprregeneration.co.uk Cornish Mining World Heritage Site bid – www.cornish-mining.org.uk

Cornwall County Council historic environment record: ƒ Sites and Monuments Record ƒ Aerial photographs (verticals 1946 RAF air photographs, 1995 CCC air photographs)

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