MineArchive

North Downs Mine

LocationScorrier, straddling Chacewater, Redruth and St Agnes parishes, Cornwall — 50.2556, -5.2058 (approximate)
CommoditiesCopper, Tin
TypeMetal
Workedworked by the mid-18th century–production tailed off after 1918
Status Researched

Overview

A copper and tin mine on a sett near Scorrier, straddling the parishes of Chacewater, Redruth and St Agnes, worked across seven lodes from the mid-18th century to 1918. Formally Great North Downs Mine, incorporating Wheal Hawke and Wheal Rose, it was drained by a branch of the Great County Adit driven west through Wheal Busy by 1778, and in its final years was worked jointly with the neighbouring Wheal Peevor. Much of the sett is now built over or under a golf course.

History

Great North Downs Mine occupied a sett between the County Crosscourse and the Great Western Railway, immediately east of Wheal Peevor, and was worked across several named sections: the main Great North Downs ground, Wheal Hawke, Wheal Rose, and South Wheal Hawke (which included a separate Scorrier Wolfram Prospect). Between 1826 and 1872 the Wheal Rose section alone raised 12,820 tons of around 6.5% copper ore and 18 tons of black tin, while the main Great North Downs section produced 9,110 tons of around 7% copper ore, 14 tons of black tin and 373 tons of arsenopyrite between 1862 and 1897. A final phase from 1912 to 1918 produced small quantities of tin and tungsten, by which time the mine was being worked jointly with the neighbouring Wheal Peevor. No source consulted gives a firm closure date beyond this tail-off in production.

Workings

Seven lodes were worked across the sett: the Main lode, which alone ran its full length from the County Crosscourse to the Wheal Rose section, together with Vivian's, Tenpenny, Pendarves North, Spelter and Pendarves South lodes and the Peevor lode, an eastern extension of a lode also worked at neighbouring Wheal Peevor. A number of shafts were sunk roughly in line along the sett; one, Waters Engine Shaft, is recorded on a surviving BGS mine plan of the Great North Downs lode. The mine was drained through the Great County Adit, begun in 1748 by John Williams of Scorrier to drain Poldice Mine and carry water to the sea via the Carnon River. By 1778 the adit had been extended west through Wheal Busy to North Downs and on into Wheal Peevor — one of several separate branches feeding the system, which at its peak drained roughly 13 million gallons a day from more than 40 mines around Redruth and St Day through some 38 miles of tunnel, remaining the longest man-made water tunnel in the world.

What remains

The Wheal Rose section is now completely built over, and the westernmost part of the sett has disappeared beneath a golf course.

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.

Sources

  1. (secondary) Great North Downs Mine (incl. Wheal Hawke) — Mindat.org
  2. (secondary) Great County Adit, Cornwall — Cornwall Calling
  3. (primary) Great North Downs Lode and Waters Engine Shaft mine plan — British Geological Survey mine plans catalogue

Record created: 26 August 2026 · Last researched: 26 August 2026