Kernow Goth

An interesting mining Penzance story has been provided for us to share. Any more recent images of remains would be most welcome. A detailed account of the Wherry Mine is available by Peter Joseph - So Very Foolish: A History of the Wherry Mine, Penzance, and published by The Trevithick Society. There have been over the years a number of publications and the Trevithick Society journal of 2008 has an extensive article and list of publications about the Wherry Mine, also written by Peter Joseph.

THE WHERRY MINE

It was known long before 1700 that there was a rich vein of tin ore about 240 yards out from the shore at Wherrytown. In 1778 a poor miner from Breage, named Thomas Curtis, decided to sink a shaft down from the Wherry Rocks to reach the tin further down. The work could only be done at low tide. A windlass brought the ore up from the shaft. Ten men worked the mine and they had to be lowered down the narrow shaft by a rope. The ore was loaded into a flat-bottomed boat called a wherry and brought ashore (hence Wherrytown).

A steam engine on the shore operated a pump to drain the mine. The pump was connected to the steam engine by a series of flat rods laid along a bridge which led to the mine. In 1792 the mine returned £3000, a huge sum in those days. It was still doing well in 1798 when an American ship broke away from its moorings off Newlyn and crashed into the mine, severely damaging the surface workings and flooding the workings underground.

This was the end of the mine for a time until 1836 when the mine was reopened but the good times did not return, and eventual closure came in 1840.

The b&w photographic images were taken about 1930.

The Mine Pump Column which would have been at the end of the Wherry Mine jetty is just visible at low tide and is situated among Wherry Rocks just past the river at the end of what is now the Skateboard Park area (former Bolitho Gardens)

Images courtesy of Morrab Library collections