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Poldark Mine – Cornwall and Devon Mining

Poldark Mine underground

located in the heart of the historic Wendron mining district, Poldark offers the rare opportunity go underground in Cornwall and experience all the excitement of extensive tin mine workings dating from the 1700s. Poldark also has on display the last Cornish beam engine to pump commercially in Cornwall, the Poldark Engine. Formerly located at a china clay pit in mid Cornwall, the Poldark Engine ceased working in 1959 but has recently been restored to pump once more.

www.poldark-mine.co.uk 01326 573173

Cornwall and Devon Mining

Wheal Trewavas

The landscapes of Cornwall and west Devon were radically reshaped during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by deep-lode mining for predominantly copper and tin. The mines, engine houses, foundries, new towns, smallholdings, ports, harbours, and ancillary industries so created, together reflect prolific industrial innovation which was to have a significant influence on the development of our modern industrial society.

The best surviving of these metal mining landscapes are recognised within the newly designated Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site, or ‘Cornish Mining’, as inscribed by UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation) in July 2006. This places the historic mining landscapes on a par with such international treasures as Stonehenge, the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China.

The Cornish Mining World Heritage Site is a serial inscription comprising ten principal Areas from St Just in the far west of Cornwall to Tavistock in west Devon. Together these total 19,700 hectares making this the largest World Heritage Site in the UK.