Mines of St Ives - St. Ives Consols

Grid reference SW506397

View Larger Map

Location
The sett of St Ives Consols lies on the southwestern fringe of St. Ives, just south and east of the A3074 road at Higher Stennack. It was a famous copper and tin mine and included Wellesley Mine and Wheal Mary. Its nearest neighbours are Goole Pellas Mine (Grid Ref. SW499397), some 700 metres away to the west, whilst Rosewall Hill and Ransom United lies just on the southwest boundary of the sett about one kilometre away at grid ref. SW496392. The chief lodes on the sett were: North, Virgin, Caunter, Daniell's, William's, Lowry's and Kemps Lodes whilst the major shafts were: Wheal Mary, West and East Virgin, Old Sump Cornish and Millet Shafts.

History
The mine is thought to date from about 1818 and is reckoned to have produced more than one million pounds worth of copper ore and black tin between 1818 and 1873. The early development of St. Ives Consols was largely overseen by Captain Hodge, a colleague of the great Richard Trevithick. Thomas Spargo reports the following in his 1864 book 'The Mines of Cornwall': St Ives Consols is 'a great mine worthy of consideration on every point'. The land was leased from the landowners - Earl of Mornington and the Duke of Cleveland, Messrs. Stephens and others. In 1865 it employed 218 men, 59 mine girls and 104 boys. Spargo also reports that St Ives Consols was equipped with a 50-inch pumping engine, 30-inch pumping engine, a 26-inch stamps engine with 52 heads, two winding engines (20-inch and an 18-inch) and five water stamping mills each with 36 heads. The management team at this time was Captain Phillip Henry Alpin as Purser and Captain John Nancarrow, Manager, shortly to be replaced by Richard Martin (1865-1871).

Kelly's Directory states that in 1873 the Purser was still Captain Alpin - a post he retained until 1874, when he was replaced by George Treweeke. The manager between 1872 and 1874 was John Gilbert. The mine continued working properly until 1875, although there was a limited amount of production closer to the surface between 1876 and 1892. In 1907 the mine was reopened by a new company calling itself 'The St Ives Consolidated Mines Limited'. This new group was an amalgamation of the former mine with Rosewall Hill and Ransom United including Goole Pellas, Trenwith, Giew Mine and Georgia. This brief reworking continued until 1915.

According to information provided by Roger Burt in his excellent book Cornish Mines: Metalliferous and Associated Minerals, 1845-1913 (Mineral Statistics of the United Kingdom, 1845-1913) its most productive years were between 1854 and 1873, with the value of black tin raised in this period amounting to over £400,000, with the best single year being 1859 when 340 tons of tin were produced at a value of £24,010.

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