St. Austell Mining District - Great Hewas Mine

OS Explorer Map 106: Grid reference SW976502

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Great Hewas Mine lies two and threequarter miles southeast of St. Stephen in St. Mewan parish, in the St. Stephen Section of the St. Austell Mining District. The sett is in the Glenleigh area close to the hamlet of Hewas Water, on the outskirts of Sticker, some three miles west of St. Austell.

Otherwise known as Hewas Downs Mine or Great Hewas United and including Ventonwyn Mine, Hewas Mine also worked with Kingsdown or Hewas Water Mine. The mine is known to have been at work in the 1790's when a 45-inch Boulton & Watt double acting engine was installed on the sett. This engine was later sold and acquired by Trescowe Mine at Breage, near Helston. There are also reports of Hewas mine having a 58-inch pumping engine in 1821 whilst being 110 fathoms under adit, between 1853 and 1860 it employed around about 260 people. The mine closed in 1926.

Including Ventonwyn Mine, previously known as Wheal Elizabeth, the mine worked several lodes for lead, silver, copper and tin. These were: Main Lode, No.5 Lode, Pit Lode, Kingsdown Lode, Diamond Lode, Mattie's Lode, Hewas South Lode and Hewas Main Lode. Shafts included: Wheal Elizabeth, Stanlie's, Warne's, Engine, Corner, East, Northey's, Gerry's, Charles', Charles' Footway, Adit, Hewas and Underlay Shafts.

The chimney of Ventonwyn Stamps engine house is a prominent landmark standing on a ridge to the north of the Truro to St. Austell road. This small tin mine lies about half a mile northwest of Hewas Mine and worked from 1903, also working for a time with the nearby Great Dowgas Mine.

Production records were:
Hewas (From 1821) - 482 tons of 5.75% copper ore
Great Hewas (From 1856) - 19 tons of 64% lead ore and 48 ounces of silver
Great Hewas United (1854-60) - 867 tons of black tin and
Kingsdown (Hewas Water) Mine (1919-26) - 24 tons of black tin per month.

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