The Great Flat Lode Trail - West Wheal Basset

Location: OS Map 104  Grid Reference SW 678396

West Wheal Basset is best visited as part of an overall trip to view all of the Basset Mines in one go. For more detailed information on this area please visit the excellent Industrial Archaeology website. West Wheal Basset is located southwest of Wheal Basset and lies between the hamlets of Piece and Treskillard with the remains of Thomas' shaft situated at SW 6815 3970.

To the south lies the sett and buildings of South Wheal Frances, to the west it is bounded by West Wheal Frances. West Wheal Basset Stamps meanwhile lie some distance away to the northeast on the lower slopes of Carn Brea - see the next section for details.

West Basset Stamps OS Map 104  Grid Reference SW 6876 4023

West Basset Stamps lie just to the north of Wheal Basset on the lower slopes of Carn Brea. The buildings appear to grow out of the lush greenery squeezed between the village of Carnkie and the upper slopes of the Carn. The Stamps crushed the ore from West Wheal Basset and was connected to the mine by a mineral tramway that ran just north of Grace's and Mitchell's shafts. The remains of the dressing floors complete with convex and concave buddles are still visible. There's lots to see for the curious visitor or informed Industrial Archaeologist although please take care amongst the buildings.
Once visited head to the right to explore the various buildings of North Wheal Basset such as the low remains of the winding engine house at Miner's Shaft before following the tracks over to the well preserved twin engine houses of North Wheal Basset Lyle's shaft. There are even picnic tables here for those requiring a rest.

The Great Flat Lode is an enormous ore bearing body tilted at an angle of about 45 degrees situated to the south of Carn Brea. Normally lodes are found perpendicular to the ground surface or at best at angles of about 60 degrees. The Great Flat lode got its name as in relative terms it lay a lot flatter in the ground. This, meant that mines could be placed at the optimum locations to extract the tin or copper ore from the ground without digging to excessive depths. The Great Flat Lode Trail encompasses all the major mines of the Camborne-Redruth area running in a 7.5 mile multi-use circular trail around the granite hill of Carn Brea. Follow the hyperlinks for more information and photographs on the main sections of this excellent trail.

'World Heritage' status for this area was granted on 14th July 2006. This should help to provide the necessary funding to improve and interlink all the mineral tramway projects. The majority of the trail is off-road and suitable for walkers, horse riders and cyclists. There are even some parts accessible to wheelchair users. There are frequent information boards giving excellent in depth information on each of the sections, helping to whet the visitors appetite for more information.

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