Betty Adit - Brea Tin Streams

Situated on the slopes of Carn Entral just above the village of Brea near Camborne lies the remains of a tin streaming works. The collection of remains of settling tanks, convex buddles and sluices are currently undergoing conservation and reinstatement work first started in 2004 as part of the ongoing Mineral Tramways Heritage Project by Cornwall County Council. The area is due to be ready for opening to the general public in 2008. Cornwall in Focus took the opportunity to have a look around to see how the project is progressing and will be visiting again at the opening.

Betty Adit first appears in the history books when 'James Bassett of Tehiddye granted to Mary the wife of Humphry Crane and William Carlyan the lease of 'two stampinge milles, water courses, letes and buddels' on the moor between Brea and Entral tenements'. The lease was dated 20th June 1588 - For more information see the excellent Trevithick Society account.

A circular walk around the Dolcoath Sett

The Great Flat Lode is an enormous ore bearing body tilted at an angle of about 45 degrees situated to the south of Carn Brea. Normally lodes are found perpendicular to the ground surface or at best at angles of about 60 degrees. The Great Flat lode got its name as in relative terms it lay a lot flatter in the ground. This, meant that mines could be placed at the optimum locations to extract the tin or copper ore from the ground without digging to excessive depths. The Great Flat Lode Trail encompasses all the major mines of the Camborne-Redruth area running in a 7.5 mile multi-use circular trail around the granite hill of Carn Brea. Follow the hyperlinks for more information and photographs on the main sections of this excellent trail.

'World Heritage' status for this area was granted on 14th July 2006. This should help to provide the necessary funding to improve and interlink all the mineral tramway projects. The majority of the trail is off-road and suitable for walkers, horse riders and cyclists. There are even some parts accessible to wheelchair users.

For those of you with possibly a little more time to explore, once you've done 'the tourist bit', why not explore Cornwall's industrial heritage through its Tin and Copper Mines or learn more from my Cornish Bookstore