The Mines of Gwennap - East Wheal Damsel

OS Explorer Map 104: Grid reference SW741418

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Location
The sett of East Wheal Damsel lies about half a mile southeast of St. Day. The sett lies very close to Carharrack Mine and production figures are a little confused. East Wheal Damsel also lies quite close to Poldice Mine and Wheal Maid. The mine worked on two major lodes: North Lode and Virgin Lode.

History
The mine is known to have been at work prior to 1820 and along with Carharrack and Wheal Maid had produced over 27,800 tons of 7.25% copper ore by 1852. It also raised a little black tin.

An account of the state of East Wheal Damsel in the mid 1860's comes from Thomas Spargo's book of 1865, entitled 'Statistics and Observations on the Mines of Cornwall and Devon'. He writes that East Wheal Damsel '... a Copper Mine, in Gwennap, was worked many years by Messrs. 'Williams & CO.' but it was not I believe very valuable. I think the returns about met the cost. It stopped about 25 or 30 years ago. Captain Thomas Kitto (who was agent under that Company about 60 or 70 years) was the Manager'.

For more information on production dates and so on please see Roger Burt's excellent book Cornish Mines: Metalliferous and Associated Minerals, 1845-1913 (Mineral Statistics of the United Kingdom, 1845-1913).

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