Newsletter 173 Autumn 2016
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- NEWSLETTER 173 AUTUMN 2016 Celebrating the tenth anniversary of the awarding of World Heritage status to the Cornish Mining region, the giant ‘Man Engine’ puppet parades in Camborne on 3rd August 2016, as part of its’ summer tour across the region. Reg. Charity 1 No. 1,159,639 CHAIRMAN’S PIECE Having been elected as your Chairman at the AGM in May, I have to report that the promised honeymoon period was a very short lived affair, as our Society (literally) flashed up its boilers for the summer season. While the rest of the country drifted aimlessly into summer in what appeared to be some sort of post Brexit malaise, for the Society, and especially the Council of Management it has been very much a case of business as usual (and a bit more besides). The Puffing Devil has enjoyed a modest but successful season under the stewardship of its new custodian Colin French, and preparations are now being made to carry out its winter maintenance programme ahead of what we are anticipating will be a busy year ahead. With the dust barely settled from the successful launch of Diane Hodnett`s Cornwall`s Fuseworks book, (on which we offer Diane our congratulations) we are reliably informed that the latest work (or more accurately re-work) from Allen Buckley is at the printers and will be available shortly also, hopefully in time for Christmas, our new- look website. Our webmaster Sean has put in a lot of time and effort into developing our website into a more powerful and attractive tool which should reap real benefits in due course. At our last Council meeting my predecessor Phil Hosken popped in; he had been lured there by our Membership Secretary Sheila on some pretext or other for a surprise presentation to commemorate his 13 years of service as our Chairman. Having congratulated him on managing to escape the gravitational pull of Redruth`s International Mining and Pasty Festival, I was happy to take a back seat while our Vice Chairman Kingsley made the presentation. While the old guard reminisced about passed events, I found myself preoccupied by Phil’s recollections on why he joined the Society in the first place and the rich and fulfilling journey his involvement with it had taken him on. Reflecting upon this, I concluded that this ultimately could be any one of us, the one key component being involvement. Over the last few months I have become increasingly aware of just how rich and diverse the activities of our Society has become and it would be fair to say that, most if not all of them, would benefit from an influx of enthusiastic Members to engage and get involved with them. To that end, if there is some aspect of your Society’s activities that you are interested in, or that you feel, “you know I wouldn’t mind doing that “ or “you know I could do that”. Please get in touch. Brian Jones Copy date for next newsletter: December 15th 2016 Established 1935 2 Kingsley presenting Phil with the engraved paper weight below in honour of his years of service as Chairman and the instrumental part he played in the building of the Puff- ing Devil amongst other Society projects (Photos: Sheila Saunders). LETTER TO THE EDITOR Dear Editor, I am writing to ask if any of your very knowledgeable members, come across references to the use of engines or other products made by Robey and Co. of Lincoln. If so, I would be most pleased to hear. I have early catalogues of Robeys: they look just like equivalent catalogues from Harveys, Copperhouse or wherever: headgear, stamps, kibbles, trams, railway rails and fittings, drills: you name it, they offered it. It would be especially interesting to learn if any of these products ever made their way to Cornwall. Dave Davies, Robey Trust email: [email protected] 3 Penzance, which becomes almost totally LONG ROCK MINE submerged at high tide. It only becomes totally exposed at low water spring tides. Long Rock Mine was described Having been a visitor to the beach at Long by the late A. K. Hamilton Jenkin (1962), Rock over many years, I had, on quite a whose sources were an article by George few occasions, tried to trace the features Henwood in the Mining Journal, and also seen in 1956, never with any success. some details of tin sales in the years 1819- Beyond the sources seen above, 1823 from the Buller accounts at CRO. very little other historical information He also described a visit in 1956 with Sir has come to light. However there is an Arthur Russell, after which the features interesting surface plan in A Survey of the they observed were lost to sand build up Manor of Carva Property of J. W. Buller and weed growth. esq. 1832 (CRO: BU1169). This shows the The Long Rock is an offshore shaft and a line of flat rods to an engine on elvan reef between Marazion and the shore (this predates the construction of the railway line). Three lodes are marked on the rock (two being NW-SE copper lodes), and also another three lodes marked between the rock and the shore line. It is possible that further information may come to light in a thorough search of the Buller papers. The storms of the winter of 2013- 2014 resulted in substantial movement of sand on the beach at Long Rock, revealing probably all the features seen in 1956, with the bonus that having been buried in sand for many years there was no marine growth to obscure the various features. The opportunity was taken over a couple of Figure 1. Plan showing surveyed locations of bearer stone and shaft location. View along the line of bearer stones to Long Rock, March 2014. 4 The main items revealed are a line of about 14 bearer stones along the line of flat rods leading out to the shaft. Other stones are evidently missing or remain buried. At the shaft site large dressed rocks remain, mostly evidently moved by storms but a few apparently in their original position. These evidently formed the breakwater built around the shaft, which was destroyed before completion as described by Henwood. For this to have been successful it would have had to be built to a very considerable height. The bearer stones are seen to be 0.6 to 1m A bearer stone, across, each with a single drilled hole on March 2014. top. The full size of the stones below sand level is not seen. The only other similar low spring tides during 2014 to accurately feature that comes to mind surviving in the survey the features revealed. The window South West is at Eylesbarrow on Dartmoor, to do this was for a very short time around where much more extensive runs of flat predicted low tide, nevertheless involving rods are marked by granite supports. some wading to reach some features. The survey was done with a 30m tape and Reference. calibrated Suunto compass read to 0.5º, and tied in to an outfall pipe near the Long Hamilton Jenkin, A. K, 1962. Mines & Rock car park located to the National Grid Miners of Cornwall iv. Penzance - Mount’s using aerial photographs. By the time of Bay. Truro Bookshop, Truro p. 23-25. the last survey it was noted marine growth was already taking over the exposed Alasdair Neill features. Blocks at shaft location apparently still in original position. September 2014. 5 NEW ZEALAND I.A. Whilst on holiday, traversing the length of New Zealand, earlier this year, I was particularly interested to see any Cornish mining connections. The highlights of which were to be found in the gold mining towns of Waihi and Thames. Waihi has more obvious visible remains of past and present mining and is using these assets to attract visitors, with a visitor centre and mining trails, etc. The concrete engine house at Waihi is remarkable in that is now stands nearly 300 metres away from its original site. In danger from subsidence from underground workings, this building was considered of such importance that it was moved, on teflon coated concrete beams, in 2006. Martha Mine operated from 1878 to 1952 producing 174,160kg of gold and 1,193,180kg of silver. There were seven Along this path were 420 large vertical shafts, the deepest being 600m. poppies commemorating each person Production peaked in 1909 when 1500 from the Waihi district who served in people worked above and below ground. the Great War. It was noticeable that Mining resumed in 1987 as an open cast the majority of the poppies had Cornish pit and present operations can be viewed surnames including the two shown who from a path around the rim. were Rickards. 6 The entrance of Thames was Thames School of Mines, now a marked by a display containing two sets of museum, was incredibly like King Edward stamps, both of which had been made in the Mine, both inside and out. It closed in town. Thames itself had few other obvious 1954 and remains a time capsule, just remains that distinguished it as a former as if the students left yesterday. There gold mining town, apart from the Thames were a number of Cornish links including School of Mines and a plaque outside the specimens in the mineral collection former Old Cornwall Arms Hotel which donated by the Camborne School of “pays tribute to the very great number of Mines, a model of a Man Engine and a Cornish miners in Old Thames”.