St Agnes Mines - North Treskerby

Grid reference SW723452

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North Treskerby lies about threequarters of a mile to the north of Scorrier near Redruth but is actually in St. Agnes parish. It lies just to the northwest of the A30 trunk road near the village of Blackwater. About a mile away to the northwest lies the hamlet of Mawla. North Treskerby is bounded to the south and west by Wheal Rose and the east by East Downs Mine. Nearby lie Boscawen Mine and Hallenbeagle Mine as well as Great North Downs. It included Scorrier Consols Mine.

There is an excellent walk available at the excellent St Agnes Heritage Trails entitled Walk 4 - Wheal Rose, The Poldice Plateway and Mawla. This walk offers a great deal to the mining enthusiast, en route you pass near to the engine house at Wheal Rose; you have the opportunity to take a detour up to Wheal Peevor at Lower Briggan and pass two shafts at Wheal Plenty (Whip Shaft and Pond Shaft). Later, just above Mawla, the woodland path passes beside an old adit of the Stencoose and Mawla Mine before wending its way back to Blackwater via Manor Parsley and Menagissey.

The mine extracted ore from a number of lodes including Main Lode, South Lode, Curtis Lode and Caunter Lode. The principal shafts on the sett were Waters' Shaft, Engine Shaft, Highburrow Shaft, Treseder's Shaft, Boundary Shaft and Derrick's Shaft working Main Lode. South Lode was cut by Saturday Shaft, whilst the No.1 Lode of the Scorrier Consols section was cut by Highburrow Shaft.

Thomas Spargo in his 1864 book 'Mines of Cornwall', states that 'A first rate mine ... good prospects ... dividends should return soon'. Production figures for the period 1859 to 1882 was 19,270 tons of 6.25% copper ore, 150 tons of black tin, 96 tons of mispickel, 16 tons of arsenic and 10 tons of pyrite.

'World Heritage' status has been gained for this area. Cornwall in Focus are waiting to see just how North Treskerby mine fits into the overall mine restoration 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