Botallack

Day 3 Location 3 No sunset in sight!

Crowns Engine Houses, Botallack Mine

 

Botallack was a submarine mine with tunnels extending under the sea, in places for half a mile. Over its recorded lifetime the mine produced around 14,500 tonnes of tin, 20,000 tonnes of copper, and 1,500 tonnes of arsenic. An estimated 1.5 million tonnes of waste would have been dug up with the minerals. It is unclear how far back mining activity goes in this location. Early records date from the 1500s. Some archaeological evidence points to mining here in the Roman era or even as far back as the Bronze Age.

 

Henry Boynes was captain of the mine in the early 18th-century and opened a ″deep adit level,″ which was driven to the Corpus Christi lode in the higher mine. The first steam-engine was put to work at Carnyorth Moor (later part of the Botallack sett) in either 1795 or about 1810, depending on the source. In the first half of the 19th-century, the average price of Botallack tin was £64 4s a ton. The abolition of tin duty of 4s per 120 lbs to the Duke of Cornwall in 1838 helped to keep the mine operating despite a decline in the price of tin to £45 per ton. In the 1860s a new diagonal shaft was dug. A visit by the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1865, when they descended the shaft, created a mini-boom in tourism, causing the mine operators to charge visitors a guinea per person.

 

An increasing supply of tin – initially from Malaysia, Banka Island, and Sumatra, and in the 1870s onwards from Australia – along with a fall in demand for tinplate in the American market, caused the price of tin to fall, causing many Cornish mines to close. The managers decided in January 1883 to stop the Botallack and Crowns engines, because the number of men employed below ground was not sufficient to meet the costs of keeping the engines going. On 2 October 1883 the recently renewed setts, which extended over 2 miles (3.2 km) – comprising Wheal Cock, the Crowns, Carnyorth and Higher Mine – were put up for auction as a ″going concern.″ It included four pumping and three winding engines, two steam stamps, plus other appliances. At the auction it was stated that the mine ″... only needs from £20,000 to £25,000 to be put in good working order, ...″ There were no bids for the mine.

 

The following shafts were working in 1884,

 

Botallack engine-shaft, 220 fathoms (1,320 ft; 400 m) deep and worked with a 30 inches (760 mm) cylinder

Crowns engine-shaft, 130 fathoms (780 ft; 240 m) deep and worked with a 36 inches (910 mm) cylinder

Wheal Cock engine-shaft, 160 fathoms (960 ft; 290 m) deep and worked with a 30 inches (760 mm) cylinder

Carnyorth engine-shaft, 130 fathoms (780 ft; 240 m) deep and worked with a 30 inches (760 mm) cylinder

Wheal Cock skip-shaft, 170 fathoms (1,020 ft; 310 m) deep

Botallack skip-shaft, 205 fathoms (1,230 ft; 375 m) deep

Carnyorth skip-shaft, 124 fathoms (744 ft; 227 m) deep

Wheal Hazzard skip-shaft, 100 fathoms (600 ft; 180 m) deep

Chy Cornish skip-shaft, 100 fathoms (600 ft; 180 m) deep

Pearce's skip-shaft, 130 fathoms (780 ft; 240 m) deep

Bullion skip-shaft, 185 fathoms (1,110 ft; 338 m) deep

Durloe skip-shaft, 70 fathoms (420 ft; 130 m) deep

Rodd's skip-shaft, 60 fathoms (360 ft; 110 m) deep

Boscawen diagonal-shaft, about 500 fathoms (3,000 ft; 910 m) long, perpendicular depth 240 fathoms (1,440 ft; 440 m) and 300 fathoms (1,800 ft; 550 m) under the sea

Approximately 10 other shafts varying in depth from a few fathoms to 50 fathoms (300 ft; 91 m) deep.

 

Other engines

 

Botallack stamping-engine, 30 inches (760 mm) cylinder

Carnyorth stamping-engine, 24 inches (610 mm) cylinder

Carn whim, 27 inches (690 mm) cylinder

Davy's whim (Botallack), 26.5 inches (670 mm) cylinder

Carnyorth, 22 inches (560 mm) cylinder

saw-mill, 14 inches (360 mm) cylinder

air-compressor, 14 inches (360 mm) cylinder.

A total of 265 workers were employed and the monthly wage was approximately £800 per month.

 

 

Done