Mines of Illogan - North Pool Mine

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Location  Grid Ref: SW675422

North Pool lay just to the southwest of Wheal Raven and West Wheal Tolgus. The mine worked from the following lodes: Daubuz's, Ballarat, Flat and Middle Lodes worked from the following shafts: West, Smith, Diagonal, Roberts', Grenifer (or Whim), Hill's, Harrison's, Ballarat and Old Engine Shafts. Nothing now remains of North Pool Mine apart from the names of the shafts commemmorated in the road names.

History

The Mine was already in operation by the 1760's with records stating that copper ore to the value of £1300 had been raised between 1761 and 1776. Nothing much more is known about North Pool until the 1840's when the records show it was producing copper ore once again in 1845. A mining lease was obtained from the mineral lord, in this case, A. M. Agar. A 50-inch pumping engine was installed soon after and production was increased allowing the mine to break even in mid 1847, with dividends being posted. A great deal of ore was found at quite shallow depths and production continued to increase from 217 tons in 1845 to over 6400 tons in 1849 - with the dividend that year a healthy £11,750.

North Pool reached its peak in 1850 producing over 7000 tons of copper ore. From this high point, production began to fall away and this, allied with spiralling costs eventually caused the downfall of the mine. North Pool was offered up for sale in 1859. The mine re-opened as North Pool Copper Mining Co. Ltd. in late 1861 but the venture came to nothing. The following year another new company North Pool Mining Co. tried its luck. The shafts were cleared and a new engine shaft, later to be named Roberts' Shaft was sunk. A 60-inch pumping engine was installed over the shaft and the engine began work in March 1865. Development of the shafts continued until 1869 when it is reported that all shaft sinking was stopped.

The mine was purchased by the North Pool Mining Co. Ltd. in 1871 and some further development work took place. Production however fell from 80 tons of ore worth £347 in 1870 to only 13 tons yielding just £57 in 1871. During the next four or five years the mine developed little and produced even less. It came as no surprise when the mine was at first renamed New North Pool, before being renamed once again as Tolgus Consols Limited. Just how much the name changes meant in reality can be illustrated by the fact that the so called 'new' enterprise Tolgus Consols had exactly the same company address and company secretary as its failed predecessor - clearly this was just an exercise on paper.
The mine whatever it was known as was obviously in trouble and was finally put out of its misery by being liquidated in mid-1879.

For more information on North Pool and its neighbouring mines please purchase a copy of the excellent Cornwall's Central Mines: The Northern District by T. A. Morrison.

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.