Wheal Fanny

Overview

One of the five original setts making up Devon Great Consols, started in 1845 and revived briefly after the main mine's 1903 closure to work arsenic during the First World War.

History

Wheal Fanny was one of five original setts -- alongside Wheal Maria, Wheal Anna Maria, Wheal Josiah and Wheal Emma -- that together made up the already-published Devon Great Consols mine near Tavistock, once the richest copper mine in Europe and later the world's largest producer of arsenic. Wheal Fanny itself was started in 1845, its lode found only 3 fathoms below the surface. When Devon Great Consols as a whole closed in 1903, Wheal Fanny lay idle for about twelve years; around 1915, with wartime demand reviving interest in the site, underground mining resumed there specifically for arsenic, continuing into the early 1920s before reverting to surface-only working by 1921. Most work across the wider Devon Great Consols site had ceased again by 1925. The mine worked Main Lode and Worbridge's Lode from Western, Ventilation and Eastern shafts, and its abandonment plan, for copper and lead ores, is held by the British Geological Survey. A rail connection between Wheal Fanny and the new arsenic works was added around the 1920s.

Geology

An arsenic and copper lode in the Tamar valley, found only 3 fathoms below the surface.

Workings

Worked a lode found only 3 fathoms below the surface; revived for underground arsenic working around 1915 before reverting to surface-only extraction by 1921.

Closure

Closed with the rest of Devon Great Consols in 1903; a brief underground revival for arsenic around 1915 had reverted to surface-only working by 1921, with most activity across the wider site ceasing again by 1925.

What remains

Unknown.

Related mines

• Devon Great Consols — Wheal Fanny was one of the five original setts that together made up Devon Great Consols.
• Wheal Frementor — Neighbouring sections of Devon Great Consols on the Tamar bank, both reopened about 1915.

Recorded claims

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

• Wheal Fanny was started in 1845 as one of the original Devon Great Consols setts, its lode cut only 3 fathoms below the surface. ¹
• Wheal Fanny lay idle for about twelve years after Devon Great Consols closed in 1903; underground mining resumed there for arsenic around 1915, reverting to surface-only working by 1921. ^1,2
• The British Geological Survey's catalogue holds an abandonment plan for Wheal Fanny under its own name, for copper and lead ores (OMR307D). ³
• Wheal Fanny, at SX 420 734 about a mile and a half north of Gunnislake on the eastern bank of the Tamar, worked Main Lode and Worbridge's Lode from Western Shaft, Ventilation Shaft and Eastern Shaft. ⁴
• A connection between Wheal Fanny and the new arsenic works was added to the Devon Great Consols railway around the 1920s; much of what remains of the railway and its structures is a scheduled monument. ¹

Sources

1. (secondary) Devon Great Consols — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Devon Great Consols Mine (Graces Guide) — Graces Guide
3. (primary) Mine plan: Wheal Fanny (abandonment plan, copper and lead ores, OMR307D) (BGS Mine Plans catalogue) — British Geological Survey
4. (secondary) Wheal Fanny Mine, Devon (Mining in Devon Database, Devon in Focus) — Devon in Focus

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