The Mines of the Carnon Valley - Mount Wellington Mine

OS Explorer Map 104: Grid reference SW764420

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Mount Wellington Mine, otherwise known as Wheal Magpie, lies 2 miles east of St. Day, on the western side of the Carnon Valley. It includes the Clifford and Poldory sections of the former United Mines Group as well as Wheal Andrew and Wheal Britannia. The mine worked a single lode called Trenare's Lode from a number of shafts. These were Robinson's Shaft, Hawkins' Shaft, Wheal Friendship Shaft, Trenare's Shaft and Dunstan's Shaft. In the Wheal Britannia section it worked from Wheal Jewel Shaft whilst in the Poldory Section it worked from Sampson's Shaft and Buzza's Shaft.

Mount Wellington Mine worked briefly between 1923 and 1941 raising 52 tons of black tin. The site then lay idle until the mid 1970's when it was decided to restart mining here. Mount Wellington opened in 1976 working in association with Wheal Jane mine helping to dewater the latter. Mount Wellington closed in 1991 and was acquired by Kensa Engineering, a light engineering company producing ground source heat pumps. The site is gradually being tidied up and made safe including the removal of the former Mount Wellington headgear. See a video news report here.

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