The post Charlotte United Mine appeared first on Explore Cornwall.
]]>Charlotte United mine was a pretty successful little mine about 500m up the valley from Chapel Porth beach. Originally opened around 1805 as North Towan, with its engine supposedly coming from Wheal Freedom right across the valley. It closed again at some point and was reopened in the 1830’s as New Charlotte, named after Great Wheal Charlotte. It was again renamed in 1877 as Charlotte United, but was put up for sale for the final time the next year.
Charlotte United remained in a state of disrepair until it was bought by the National Trust in 1956. It was consolidated in 2014, along with the Old Century Tin Works further down the valley.
The pumping engine house was built to house a 36″ engine which pumped out of engine shaft. It was built between 1869-70. Engine shaft in front, which is impossible to get a photo of due to the very attractive, but tenacious gorse, remains open and uncapped/grilled. I can’t find any records of how deep it was.
Despite being quite a short lived mine it was actually pretty successful. Between 1820-56 it raised over 23,100 tons of copper, although in 1870 it did only produce 3 tons of tin. Only two shafts are named: Engine and Harvey’s, although the 1880 OS maps show at least a dozen more in the area.
Owned by the National Trust who have had the building consolidated; however the shaft remains open and unsafe so there is a nice big fence around the whole thing. There’s a public footpath that runs up to the bottom of the house, and you can take another up to the right to walk around to the open side of the house.
There is pay and display parking at Chapel Porth.
Dines, H. G. (1956) The metalliferous mining regions of south-west England. British Geological Survey.
Nance, D. and Brown, K. (2014) A complete guide to the engine houses of West Cornwall. Gloucestershire: Lightmoor Press.
National Trust (no date) New Wheal Charlotte or Towan Mine. Available at: https://heritagerecords.nationaltrust.org.uk/HBSMR/MonRecord.aspx?uid=MNA102575 (Accessed: 23 December 2017).
The post Charlotte United Mine appeared first on Explore Cornwall.
]]>