St. Austell Mining District - Blencowe Consols

OS Explorer Map 106: Grid reference SW929523

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Blencowe Consols, otherwise known as Wheal Blanco or Lambert Mine, lies one mile southwest of St. Stephen, in the St. Stephen Section of the St. Austell Mining District. The mine lies just southwest of South Terras (uranium) Mine, near the hamlet of Trelion.

This rather small tin producer worked Jobling's Lode, Palmer's Lode and Crighton Lode from Old Engine Shaft, Jobling's Shaft and Lambert's Shaft. The only recorded production from Blencowe was 34 tons of black tin between 1873 and 1874. Blencowe was renamed Wheal Lambert in 1875. The manager at this time was William West.

Thomas Spargo, the mining historian, in his book 'The Mines of Cornwall and Devon: Statistics and Observations' in 1865, simply states that Blencowe Mine was '... in St. Stephens. Idle. Tin mine. The late Captain Jno. Dale was the Manager, and Mr. G. N. Simmons the Purser'.

Now that 'World Heritage' status has been achieved Cornwall in Focus will monitor developments and learn how the mines of the St. Austell District fare within the overall Mining framework.

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