The Caradon Mining District - Caradon Consols Mine

OS Explorer Map 109: Grid reference SX256698

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Caradon Consols Mine in St. Cleer parish should not be confused with Caradon United Mine or the Great Caradon Mine in St Ive parish (Grid Reference SX298707). It lies about one and a quarter miles southwest of the summit of Caradon Hill and was bounded on the north and east by Craddock Moor Mine and West Caradon mines. Caradon Consols worked five lodes including Clymo's Lode and North Lode from South Shaft and North (otherwise known as Flat Rod) Shaft. It was a modest copper producer with an output of just 348 tons of 6% copper ore between the years of 1866 and 1870.

'The Railway Register and Record of Public Enterprise for Railways' writes about Caradon Consols in 1846 stating that: 'Caradon Consols is a large sett nearly to the west of West Caradon, and Wheal Agar, and bounded by Craddock Moor, Wheal Norris, and part of Caradon United. There are two shafts sinking through a hard granite country—the engine shaft is down 26 fathoms below the adit of 14 fathoms; the other shaft, about 50 fathoms further north, is worked by flat rods, and is about the same depth. In the bottom of the engine shaft, the Captain informed us there was a promising lode, and they are daily expecting to cut a south lode. The engine is a new 45-inch cylinder, and works well. The outlay in the mine has been about £6,000. Agent, Capt. Whitford. Purser, Mr. Thos. Kittow'.

Some years later, Thomas Spargo the mining historian, writes little in his book 'The Mines of Cornwall and Devon: Statistics and Observations' in 1865, he simply states that Caradon Consols '... Is in the parish of St. Cleer, and adjoins West Caradon. Experiments are being conducted on a liberal scale on the lodes as they are found; and being the same as those in West Caradon, great success is reasonably looked for at no distant period. Agent, Captain W. Rich; secretary, Mr. E. King, London.'.

Now that 'World Heritage' status has been achieved Cornwall in Focus will monitor developments and learn how the mines of the Caradon Mining 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