Wheal Uny

Overview

Wheal Uny, on the hill overlooking Redruth, shifted from copper to tin partway through its working life and left behind one of the finest surviving pairs of engine houses anywhere in the Cornish mining landscape.

History

Wheal Uny was worked from around 1800, producing copper through the early 19th century with significant stamping capacity already in place by the 1840s, powered by waterwheels fed from the mine's pumping engines. The mine reopened in 1851 with a shift to tin. Between 1826 and 1856 it produced 755 tons of 4.5% copper ore and 7,660 tons of black tin. In 1866 Wheal Uny amalgamated with the neighbouring North Wheal Buller. Hind's pumping engine house, built in 1869-70, housed a 70-inch Cornish engine, standing at right angles to a matching whim engine house built the same year to house a 26-inch winding engine. The mine closed for the final time in 1893.

Geology

The mine worked copper and tin lodes within the Camborne-Redruth orefield, the same hydrothermal, granite-related Cornubian mineralisation worked at the neighbouring Wheal Peevor and Basset Mines.

Geological setting: Hydrothermal Deposits (well documented example), Veins and Lodes (well documented example)

Workings

Hind's pumping engine house, built 1869-70, housed a 70-inch Cornish engine, standing at right angles to a matching whim engine house built the same year for a 26-inch winding engine; significant stamping capacity, powered by waterwheels fed from the pumping engines, was already in place by the 1840s.

Closure

The mine closed for the final time in 1893, following its 1866 amalgamation with North Wheal Buller.

What remains

The twin engine houses at Hind's Shaft — the pumping engine house and its matching whim engine house, built at right angles to each other in 1869-70 — survive overlooking Redruth, along with associated chimneys and mine shafts.

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.

• Between 1826 and 1856 the mine produced 755 tons of 4.5% copper ore and 7,660 tons of black tin. ¹
• Hind's pumping engine house of 1869-70 housed a 70-inch Cornish engine, standing at right angles to a matching whim engine house built the same year for a 26-inch winding engine. ^1,2

Images

Sources

1. (secondary) Wheal Uny Mine, Cornwall — Cornwall Calling
2. (primary) Winding Engine House on Site of Wheal Uny Mine at SW 695 407, Redruth — Historic England (Listed Building record)
3. (primary) Wheal Uny mine plans (BGS Mine Plans Catalogue) — British Geological Survey / The Coal Authority

Record created: 23 August 2026 · Last researched: 23 August 2026