Botallack Mine, nr St Just, Cornwall
N 50° 08.435 W 005° 41.499
30U E 307672 N 5557730
Botallack Mine is part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage site and situated in the St Just Mining District which is north of Land's End in the far west of Cornwall. This mine is one of the most ancient mines in the area.
Waymark Code: WMBPJF
Location: South West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 06/10/2011
Views: 6
Copper and tin has been mined here for countless generations and miners have even sunk shafts and driven levels out beneath the ocean bed. These are the world famous submarine mines.
The Botallack mine was formed in the late 1700,s from the merging of several other smaller mines. In 1846 Queen Victoria visited the mine. Work began on the Boscawen diagonal shaft in 1858 to improve the workings out under the sea. It was in this shaft that eight miners and a boy were killed in 1863. Another royal visit was made to Botallack in 1865 when the Prince and Princess of Wales rode into the mine via the Boscawen Diagonal shaft. By 1895 the mine was in trouble with a combination of the low price of tin and flooding forcing closure. Another attempt at mining began in 1906 with work being concentrated around Allen’s Shaft. Sadly by 1914 the mine again closed. In the 1980's further attempts were made by the nearby Geevor mine to restart mining in the Botallack area with out success.
Walking around Botallack is now a peaceful experience, especially in spring when wild flowers adorn the cliffs. But at the peak of mining the cliff tops would have reverberated with the noise of crushing machinery and the bustle of miners, bal maidens and children going about their daily tasks. Many fathoms underground, and in tunnels out under the sea, miners – often father and son - toiled to break the ore. Hand-drilling shot holes for blasting with gunpowder, and working the narrow ‘stopes’ with hammer and ‘picker’, the work was hard and dangerous. But mining was the life-blood of the St Just area and hundreds of families depended on this ancient industry. As the mining declined in the St Just area the miners and their families immigrated to other mines all over the world.
Type: Natural
Reference number: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1215
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