Wheal Union

Overview

Wheal Union, on the western outskirts of Redruth opposite the old grammar school, amalgamated at least four earlier setts -- Gweal Paul, Wheal Goodspeed, Hoskings Wheal Silver and Wheal Captain -- and worked seven shafts across several named lodes for copper and tin between 1848 and 1882, but was never a commercially successful mine.

History

Wheal Union commenced operations around 1848 on the western outskirts of Redruth, amalgamating at least four earlier, smaller setts: Gweal Paul, Wheal Goodspeed, Hoskings Wheal Silver and Wheal Captain. It produced little in this first phase and closed in 1854. Reopened the following year, the mine worked at least seven shafts across a run of named lodes -- Druid's, MacDonald's, Vigur's, Old North, Teague's, Chyandower and Wheel Breeches -- but struggled from the outset, with production costs consistently outweighing output, and ceased working again in 1866. In 1864, during that second phase, George Lightley served as Purser and Captain Thomas Glanville as Manager; the land was owned by James Wentworth Buller, William Williams and Thomas James Agar-Robartes of Lanhydrock. Only scant records survive of further, evidently minor working in 1870 and again between 1879 and 1882. The site was later worked in combination with the neighbouring Carn Brea sett, recorded in BGS mine plans as "Carn Brea East and Wheal Union".

Geology

Thermally metamorphosed killas on the northern flank of the Carn Brea granite, cut by eight lodes running broadly east-north-east and underlying north - Druid's, Macdonald's, Vigur's, Teague's, Old North, Chyandower and Wheal Breeches among them. Dines thought some of them the eastward continuations of lodes in the Carn Brea and Tincroft mines, which is the likeliest reason anyone kept trying here: the ground was believed to hold the same structures that had made its neighbours rich. The returns say it did not, or not at this end of them.

Workings

Four shafts on the southern lodes - Old Engine, Western, Engine and Eastern - reached the 10, 20, 40 and 30 fathom levels respectively, with a winze 10 fathoms below the Old Engine adit drive. The deepest sinking was New Shaft on Teague's Lode, carried on the underlie to the 100-fathom level with levels at 70, 88 and 100. Drainage was by an adit driven north-north-west beneath the western boundary stream, which cut the Chyandower Lode on its way and the Wheal Breeches Lode twenty fathoms short of its portal. Eight lodes were tried in all, and Dines's word for how it was done is desultory.

Closure

The mine was never once profitable across three working attempts. Its official returns amount to 84 tons of black tin and tinstuff worth £3,763 across 1852-66 and 1882, and 77 tons of eight per cent copper ore between 1862 and 1866 - a trivial output for a sett that had swallowed four earlier mines and been sunk to a hundred fathoms. Only scant records survive of the last working between 1879 and 1882.

What remains

Unknown.

Related mines

• Carn Brea Mine — Dines records some of Wheal Union's lodes as the eastward extensions of Carn Brea's, and the Mining Remediation Authority catalogue files twenty-two plans of the site under the combined name 'Carn Brea East and Wheal Union'.
• Tincroft Mine — Dines records that some of Wheal Union's eight lodes are thought to be the eastward extensions of lodes in Tincroft, which is a large part of why the sett was tried three times.

Recorded claims

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

• Wheal Union amalgamated at least four earlier setts -- Gweal Paul, Wheal Goodspeed, Hoskings Wheal Silver and Wheal Captain -- commencing operations around 1848, producing little and closing in 1854. ¹
• Reopened in 1855, the mine worked at least seven shafts on named lodes including Druid's, MacDonald's, Vigur's, Old North, Teague's, Chyandower and Wheel Breeches, but ceased again in 1866 as production costs consistently outweighed output. ¹
• In 1864, George Lightley served as Purser and Captain Thomas Glanville as Manager; the land was owned by James Wentworth Buller, William Williams and Thomas James Agar-Robartes of Lanhydrock. ¹
• Only scant records survive of further working in 1870 and between 1879 and 1882; the mine was never considered commercially successful across any of its working periods. ¹
• The BGS/Mining Remediation Authority mine-plans catalogue holds 22 plans recording the site as 'Carn Brea East and Wheal Union', reflecting a later combined working with the neighbouring Carn Brea sett. ²
• In 1864 George Lightley served as purser and Captain Thomas Glanville as manager; the land was owned by James Wentworth Buller, William Williams and Thomas James Agar-Robartes of Lanhydrock. ¹
• Dines places the mine at SW 69130 41605, half a mile south-west of Redruth church, in thermally unaltered country of metamorphosed killas, the sett lying mainly south of the Camborne-Redruth road and running about 600 yards east from a stream that marked its western boundary, with the Great Western Railway crossing it some 200 yards south of the road. Wheal Breeches, at SW 68850 41865, is included in it. ³
• Eight lodes were tried, in Dines's phrase, in a desultory fashion - Druid's, Macdonald's, Vigur's, Teague's, Old North, Chyandower and Wheal Breeches among them - and some are thought to be the eastward extensions of lodes in the Carn Brea and Tincroft mines to the west. ³
• Four shafts worked the southern lodes: Old Engine Shaft to the 10-fathom level with a winze to 15 fathoms, Western Shaft to 20 fathoms on Druid's Lode, Engine Shaft vertical to 40 fathoms on Macdonald's, and Eastern Shaft to 30 fathoms on Vigur's. The deepest working was New Shaft on Teague's Lode, driven on the underlie to the 100-fathom level, with levels at 70, 88 and 100 fathoms. ³
• The mine's official returns are 84 tons of black tin and tinstuff worth £3,763 for 1852-66 and 1882, and 77 tons of eight per cent copper ore for 1862-66. Against four shafts, eight lodes and a hundred fathoms of sinking, that is very little. ³
• Drainage adit was driven north-north-west from the western end of Adit Level on Druid's Lode, below the boundary stream, meeting the Chyandower Lode 150 fathoms north of Druid's and reaching its portal on the east side of the stream about 110 yards north of the main road; twenty fathoms short of the portal it cut the Wheal Breeches Lode, which Adit Level then followed 110 fathoms east to Breeches Engine Shaft. ³
• Dines records the Wheal Uny sett as adjoining Wheal Union on its north side, with South Carn Brea to Uny's west and East Carn Brea to its east, so Wheal Union sat between the Tolgus group and the Carn Brea mines on ground that had been worked from every side. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Union Mine Co, Wheal — Buddlepit Mine Database
2. (primary) Carn Brea East and Wheal Union (mine plans) — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans catalogue
3. (primary) The Metalliferous Mining Region of South-West England (Dines, BGS economic memoir, 1956) — British Geological Survey

Record created: 29 August 2026 · Last researched: 28 September 2026