a brief history:
Carn Brea and Tincroft Mines merged eventually to form part of the enlarged sett of South Crofty. They lay just to the north and northwest of the granite hill of Carn Brea overlooking the Camborne-Redruth area.
Carn Brea mine was one of the largest setts in this part of Cornwall. The mine was on the lower slopes of the hill and was bounded to the east by Carn Brea Village and the sett of Wheal Union and Wheal Uny, Redruth. To the north lay the setts of East Pool, Wheal Agar and Tehidy.
Both tin and copper ore were reported to occur to a depth of 200m, dominant lode fillings below this depth consist of finely divided chlorite with grains of cassiterite and arsenopyrite.
The lode passes from killas to granite at 210m in the east and 150m in the west. Lodes in the Tincroft area were closed early in the 20th century (Dines, 1956).
The Trip:
This place was explained to us in detail by a ex miner, it was maintained as access and drainage as it used to link up with more modern workings somewhere up the line.
The adit in question was of great length and allowed access to a large area of workings that have now been capped.
This adit access is beleived to be the only way in or out and although we were told where it was, took us ages to locate.
This has to be one of the most tortourous trips into a mine i have ever done, well over a mile walking in back breaking tunnels, waist to chest high water, against a strong flow is enough to put anyone off.
Eventually it led to some good stuff, i would love to know where abouts on the surface we were under but the changes of direction and distances were very hard to follow, i would imagine we were somewhere toward the base of carn brea.
The way down into the adit system
The way in is via that short tunnel to the left, its waist high water and you have to bend down a lot to fit!
This is a good example of what the first mile or so is like, and yes its pretty cold too.
Finally gets a little shallower...
We came across several shafts, this one in particular was capped but still had its pumping gear. Notice how wet it was by the water pouring down
the same pump gear from the other side of the shaft, the shaft continued downward but everything below is flooded
finally up into dry workings
looking up into a stope
big stope, when those timbers decide to give way, make sure your standing some place else!!!
wooden walkway over a hole, it was a short drop to water and the timbers were in good condition
The water in this section was pouring in through a seam in the tunnel wall, it was under quite a lot of pressure
A launder channeling water over some stope areas
Awsome colours from the mineral deposits
This is the bottom of another capped shaft, a manway shaft this time, the ladders have all collapsed over time to this heap at the bottom.
We called it a day at this point, and headed back, a good trip but hard going.
Carn Brea and Tincroft Mines merged eventually to form part of the enlarged sett of South Crofty. They lay just to the north and northwest of the granite hill of Carn Brea overlooking the Camborne-Redruth area.
Carn Brea mine was one of the largest setts in this part of Cornwall. The mine was on the lower slopes of the hill and was bounded to the east by Carn Brea Village and the sett of Wheal Union and Wheal Uny, Redruth. To the north lay the setts of East Pool, Wheal Agar and Tehidy.
Both tin and copper ore were reported to occur to a depth of 200m, dominant lode fillings below this depth consist of finely divided chlorite with grains of cassiterite and arsenopyrite.
The lode passes from killas to granite at 210m in the east and 150m in the west. Lodes in the Tincroft area were closed early in the 20th century (Dines, 1956).
The Trip:
This place was explained to us in detail by a ex miner, it was maintained as access and drainage as it used to link up with more modern workings somewhere up the line.
The adit in question was of great length and allowed access to a large area of workings that have now been capped.
This adit access is beleived to be the only way in or out and although we were told where it was, took us ages to locate.
This has to be one of the most tortourous trips into a mine i have ever done, well over a mile walking in back breaking tunnels, waist to chest high water, against a strong flow is enough to put anyone off.
Eventually it led to some good stuff, i would love to know where abouts on the surface we were under but the changes of direction and distances were very hard to follow, i would imagine we were somewhere toward the base of carn brea.
The way down into the adit system
The way in is via that short tunnel to the left, its waist high water and you have to bend down a lot to fit!
This is a good example of what the first mile or so is like, and yes its pretty cold too.
Finally gets a little shallower...
We came across several shafts, this one in particular was capped but still had its pumping gear. Notice how wet it was by the water pouring down
the same pump gear from the other side of the shaft, the shaft continued downward but everything below is flooded
finally up into dry workings
looking up into a stope
big stope, when those timbers decide to give way, make sure your standing some place else!!!
wooden walkway over a hole, it was a short drop to water and the timbers were in good condition
The water in this section was pouring in through a seam in the tunnel wall, it was under quite a lot of pressure
A launder channeling water over some stope areas
Awsome colours from the mineral deposits
This is the bottom of another capped shaft, a manway shaft this time, the ladders have all collapsed over time to this heap at the bottom.
We called it a day at this point, and headed back, a good trip but hard going.
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