New Consols Mine

Overview

New Consols, in the Tamar valley near Luckett, worked its way through half a dozen names — Wheal Martha, Great Wheal Martha, New Wheal Martha, New Great Consols — before settling on New Consols, and turned an already rich poly-metallic mine into one of Cornwall's major arsenic producers from the 1860s onward.

History

The site later known as New Consols was originally worked as Wheal Martha; in 1867 it amalgamated with the neighbouring West Great Consols to form the New Consols Tin and Arsenic Works, renamed again in 1874 as the New Great Consols Silver and Arsenic Works Limited. Across its working life from the 19th century into the mid-20th, the mine produced a genuinely wide range of ores — copper, lead, silver, arsenic and tin, alongside small quantities of gold. Extensive arsenic-processing plant was added from the 1860s onward, including a row of at least seven calciners and their associated flue system, running along the hillside above the river, used to roast mundic-rich ore and drive off and capture arsenic. The mine was finally abandoned in 1953.

Geology

The mine worked copper, tin, lead and silver lodes within the Tamar valley orefield, part of the same hydrothermal, granite-related Cornubian mineralisation worked across Cornwall's other major metal-mining districts.

Geological setting: Hydrothermal Deposits (well documented example), Veins and Lodes (well documented example)

Workings

A row of at least seven calciners, water-powered in part, and their associated arsenic flue system survive along the hillside above the river, used to roast arsenic-rich ore and capture the arsenic driven off in the process.

Closure

The mine was finally abandoned in 1953, ending more than a century of intermittent working under a succession of different names.

What remains

Surface, buried and underground remains survive across the site, including the calciner row and its flue systems, protected as a scheduled monument.

Abandoned workings can be dangerous — unstable ground, uncapped shafts, flooding and bad air are common even where a site looks safe from the surface. This entry describes history and general location only; it is not an access guide.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• The mine produced copper, lead, silver, arsenic and tin, alongside small quantities of gold, across a working life running from the 19th century into the mid-20th, before final abandonment in 1953. ^1,2
• A row of at least seven calciners and their associated flue system, added from the 1860s onward, roasted arsenic-rich ore and captured the arsenic driven off in the process. ¹

Sources

1. (primary) New Consols Mine: surface, buried and underground remains, Luckett, Stokeclimsland — Historic England (Scheduled Monument record)
2. (secondary) New Consols (New Great Consols; New Wheal Martha; Great Wheal Martha; Wheal Martha), Luckett, Callington, Stokeclimsland, Cornwall, England, UK — Mindat
3. (primary) New Consols mine plans (BGS Mine Plans Catalogue) — British Geological Survey

Record created: 23 August 2026 · Last researched: 23 August 2026