Cape Cornwall
View from Carn Gloose 1997.
Cape Cornwall - from Carn Cloose 1997
To the right, Chapel Field.
Cape Cornwall Mine – last open 1878.
Centre white building was the Counting House. The explosives store was up well behind the house.
Long building in the centre was the Pump Engine house, with a 600 feet shaft.
on the left end of that building there was a tower for the machinery; it had all been built 1865.
The building was converted to designs by Geoffrey Drewitt into two houses, Brisons Veor and Brisons Vean.
At the far edge of the track were the Mine Head Gear, with Skip Shaft ...
On the other side of the headland is another mine shaft.
the levels went out under the sea to 120 feet from the cliff edge.
Below the mine track are the rocks of Priest's Cove.
Initial workings commenced on Cape Cornwall in 1836, with Cape Cornwall Mine opening in 1839. It closed 1848.
The mine remained closed until 1863, re-opened by the St Just Consolidated Tin and Copper Mining Company.
The new engine house was built with a 26-inch engine to wind, pump and stamp.
It was at this time that a stack was built on top of the Cape.
Later in 1865 a third engine house was built to pump and wind, the earlier engine then used for stamping only (32 heads).
But, there was so little gained from the workings during 1865-67, so the mine was offered for sale in 1869.
Royal Cornwall Gazette18th December 1869 states…
Cape Cornwall Mine, having been opened again in 1863,
had become abandoned and was placed up for sale in December 1869,
there having been an outlay of £20,000 or more for two engines
and a new stack on the summit of the Cape.
Early in 1870 the Mine was re-opened.
The Cape stack became disused later when it was discovered the draw was insufficient
and another was built next to the engine house.
12 men were employed at the mine. Only exploratory cuts and shafts had been undertaken.
The mine closed in 1875.
July 1878 Cape Cornwall Pumping Engine and Stamps up for sale, the mine now considered not viable.
St Just Amalgamated was reworked between 1879 and 1888 as St Just United, and incorporated Cape Cornwall
although the section was abandoned completely in 1883.
Raymond Forward
