The Mines of Redruth - South Buller & West Penstruthal

OS Explorer Map 104: Grid reference SW703391

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The exact location of these mines has not been proved beyond doubt. South Buller and West Penstruthal mines were at work between 1821 and 1823 when the mine was known as South Wheal Buller. It may have been on the ancient Wheal Gallish sett. In 1856 a company called 'South Buller & West Penstruthal' worked the western boundary of Penstruthal Mine. Tom Morrison in his book 'Cornwall's Central Mines: The Southern District' (1983), suggests that the new sett '... must have been carved out of the south west end of Bell and Lannarth Sett'. It is also known that South Buller and West Penstruthal expanded its operations to include East Wheal Buller and the Bell and Lannart Sett some time in the 1860's.

The mine was bounded on the north by Wheal Buller, on the east by Penstruthal, on the south and southeast by West Carvannel and Carvannel Mines respectively, to the southwest lay Buller & Basset United whilst to the northwest lay South Wheal Basset. Any further information on the mines is hard to locate but it is known that 1,238 tons of copper ore was raised from South Wheal buller in 1821 to 1823; 40 tons of copper in 1863 to 1865 and 56 tons of copper from West Penstuthal in 1832.

It seems that the mines were counted as one concern on some occasions and as two separate entities on others. South Buller & West Penstruthal was wound up in November 1863, but South Buller then worked on alone before closing some thirteen months later in December 1864. Shafts on the mine included Hodge's, Whim, Flat Rod, Western and Eastern Shafts.

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