Turnavore Mine

Overview

Another of the individual setts -- alongside Wheal Kine, Wheal Pell, Prosper, Park and Squidler -- amalgamated into the Polberro Mines (St Agnes Consols) at St Agnes, notable for the 60-inch pumping engine installed at its own named shaft in 1886.

History

Turnavore was one of several individually named workings -- Wheal Kine, Wheal Pell, Prosper, Park and Squidler among them -- consolidated into the Polberro Mines, also known as St Agnes Consols or (after Queen Victoria's 1846 visit) Royal Polberro Consols. Unusually among the individual setts, Turnavore is remembered for its own named shaft: an engine house was built there in 1886 to house a 60-inch pumping engine, later moved to the adjacent Wheal Friendly in 1902 once Turnavore's own pumping needs had presumably been superseded. The wider Polberro concern's main productive period ran from 1837 to 1895, during which it produced 4,310 tons of tin and 1,598 tons of copper; by 1843 the combined workings covered upwards of 200 acres with 24 shafts, nine of them in full work.

Geology

Tin and copper of the St Agnes district, within the wider Polberro ground; the lodes are not named on the record.

Workings

Worked via Turnavore Shaft, which carried a 60-inch pumping engine from 1886 until the engine was relocated to the adjacent Wheal Friendly in 1902; part of the wider Polberro Mines group.

Closure

Turnavore's own working life falls within Polberro's main productive period, 1837-1895; its pumping engine was relocated to Wheal Friendly in 1902, suggesting Turnavore's own pumping needs had ended by then.

What remains

The engine house on Turnavore Shaft stands on private land, long since converted to a miners' dry, with part of the calciner nearby.

Related mines

• Polberro Mine — One of the setts consolidated into Polberro.
• Wheal Kine — Individually named workings consolidated together into the Polberro Mines (St Agnes Consols).
• Wheal Kitty — Reopened to work the same tin veins that paid at Wheal Kitty.
• Wheal Pell — Fellow component of the Polberro Mines group.

Recorded claims

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

• An engine house was built at Turnavore Shaft in 1886 for a 60-inch pumping engine, which was moved to the adjacent Wheal Friendly in 1902. ¹
• The wider Polberro Mines group, into which Turnavore was consolidated, produced 4,310 tons of tin and 1,598 tons of copper during its main working period of 1837-1895. ²
• The engine house on Turnavore Shaft, built for a 60-inch pumping engine made by Harvey and Co. in 1863 and moved to Wheal Friendly in 1902, was later converted to a miners' dry and so carries a modern roof, a walled-in bob opening and gothic windows; one account dates its building to 1885, another to 1886. ^3,4
• Polberro Tin Mines Ltd was formed in 1934 to find the Wheal Kitty lode and, failing, was liquidated in 1941; the Northern Mine Research Society gives the mine's grid reference as SW 717 514. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Wheal Kine (Wheal Kind), St Agnes Consols (Polberro Consols) — Mindat
2. (secondary) Polberro Mine, St Agnes — Cornwall Calling
3. (observational) Polberro Mine, Turnavore Shaft, St Agnes (Geograph, Chris Allen) — Geograph Britain and Ireland
4. (secondary) Polberro Mine (Northern Mine Research Society) — Northern Mine Research Society

Record created: 31 August 2026 · Last researched: 24 September 2026