The Mines of Gwennap - West Wheal Damsel

OS Explorer Map 104: Grid reference SW725410 Map

Location
The sett of West Wheal Damsel lies just to the southwest of the village of Carharrack. The mine also known as Wheal Spinster worked on two lodes: North Lode and Tremayne's Lodes. Its nearest neighbours are Ting Tang Mine, 500 metres eastwards and Wheal Damsel about 800 metres to the northeast.

History
The mine started work some time around 1815, when it was known as Wheal Spinster. Its early life is not well documented although it is known to have raised 4,520 tons of 9% copper ore between 1815 and 1829. It reappears in the history books as West Wheal Damsel in 1852. Its most productive year was 1857, when it had an output of almost 1840 tons of copper ore at a value of over £10,650. Ore production increased to a maximum of 2252 tons in 1863 but as the metal price was less than £4 per ton this gave a return of only £8339.60. The manager at this time was William Thomas. West Wheal Damsel also worked for a time as Wheal Damsel United from 1872.

The mine was abandoned in 1896.

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