Wheal Squire

Location	Outer Wood, near Carharrack, Gwennap, Cornwall — 50.2320, -5.1650 (approximate)
Commodity	Copper
Type	Metal
Worked	Worked from 1816, as one of the mines later absorbed into the United Mines group.–Closed around 1870, following the general decline of Clifford Amalgamated Mines, into which it had been merged in 1861.
Maximum depth	No reliable individual depth figure has yet been located; the wider United Mines workings it was joined to extended some 80 miles underground at their 19th-century peak.
Status	Researched

Overview

A Gwennap copper mine worked from 1816 to 1853, absorbed into the wider United Mines group and later Clifford Amalgamated Mines, that raised over 20,000 tons of copper ore in less than four decades before closing around 1870.

History

Wheal Squire was worked from 1816, one of a number of Gwennap mines -- alongside Wheal Britannia, Wheal Clifford, Wheal Moor, Wheal Andrew (Friendship Mines) and Copper Hill Mine -- absorbed into the United Mines group, itself founded around 1780 by the amalgamation of Ale and Cakes Mine, Wheal Cupboard and Poldory. In the early 1820s the engineer John Taylor acquired the lease of these largely abandoned Gwennap workings and rebuilt them into profitability, striking what was at the time the richest copper lode in the world; the United Mines group was well in profit by 1822 and went on, at its 19th-century peak, to work some 80 miles of underground passages driven by 22 operating engines, moving its ore from 1824 via Taylor's own Redruth and Chasewater mineral railway to Devoran. Wheal Squire itself was worked until 1853, raising a total of 20,082 tons of 8.5%-grade copper ore worth £148,000 across its working life. In 1861 United Mines merged with the neighbouring Consolidated Mines to form Clifford Amalgamated Mines, which continued operating, increasingly unprofitably, until closure around 1870 as metals discovered elsewhere depressed global copper prices.

Workings

Worked as part of the United Mines group's combined underground system, which extended some 80 miles at its 19th-century peak and was served by 22 operating engines.

Closure

Worked until 1853 in its own right; absorbed into Clifford Amalgamated Mines in 1861, which closed around 1870.

What remains

A few overgrown shafts, together with some walls and burrows, can still be found in Outer Wood, south of Sparry Bottom, about a kilometre south-east of Carharrack.

Overgrown shafts, walls and burrows surviving in Outer Wood.

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.

Wheal Squire was worked from 1816 to 1853, raising a total of 20,082 tons of 8.5%-grade copper ore worth £148,000 across its working life. ¹
Wheal Squire was one of the mines absorbed into the United Mines group founded around 1780, itself merged with the neighbouring Consolidated Mines in 1861 to form Clifford Amalgamated Mines, which closed around 1870. ²
A few overgrown shafts, together with some walls and burrows, can still be found in Outer Wood, south of Sparry Bottom, about a kilometre south-east of Carharrack. ¹

Photographs & further reading

This page doesn't try to reproduce everything — these are the best original sources found for this mine.

Ale and Cakes Mine, Cornwall (Cornwall Calling) (academic)

Cornwall Calling's own account of the United Mines group Wheal Squire belonged to, including its own production figures.

View source

Sources

(secondary) Ale and Cakes Mine, Cornwall — Cornwall Calling
(secondary) United Mines — Grace's Guide to British Industrial History

Record created: 30 August 2026 · Last researched: 31 August 2026