Wheal Peevor Site - Opened 25th January 2008

OS Explorer Map 104: Grid reference SW706442

Work has now been completed on the restoration and consolidation of the three Grade II listed engine houses at Wheal Peevor. It was officially opened on 25th January 2008. Almost half of the 12 acre site has been made more accessible and other improvements ensure it fits well into the overall Mineral Tramways Heritage Project. The £810,000 project, including over £400,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, has taken over 2 years to complete with work to cap and make safe the 12 mineshafts beginning in early October 2005.

Lying adjacent to North Downs at Radnor, about a mile and a half north east of Redruth town centre, the site now offers a place to relax and to stroll for the casual visitor with a little more detail for the mining enthusiast. The three stamps, pumping and winding engine houses have been repaired and conserved and the main shaft at Sir Frederick's Shaft landscaped with a heavy metal grille placed over it.

Other shafts meanwhile have been capped with 'bat castles' to allow bird and bat access. The ore processing areas such as the buddle yard, bases of the vanning tables and settling tanks have been cleared and made accessible. To the west of the site lie the Brunton calciners, the arsenic chimney and flue. Some of the buildings have been made safe but left otherwise undisturbed as refuges for wildlife.

A network of paths lead the visitor around the site whilst plaques on all the important structures give a little more detail. Waymarkers point the visitor towards the Coast to Coast Trail and the site links well into the Mineral Tramways Project - a series of interconnecting trails and paths covering the whole Camborne-Redruth former mining area. To the west lies the Tolgus Trail whilst to the north-east lies the Wheal Rose section of the trail.

Wheal Peevor lies on the northern fringe of the Carn Brea-Carnmemellis granite igneous intrusion and is bounded by Wheal Boys, Wheal Prussia, Wheal Briggan, Great North Downs Mine and West Wheal Peevor. Prior to the Industrial Revolution North Downs was a large area of heathland stretching from the north coast of Cornwall to Truro. The town of Redruth was still relatively small and Camborne was little more than a hamlet on the turnpike road west.

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 Mining Database or learn more from my Cornish Bookstore