Wherry Mine

Overview

A tin mine sunk into the sea off Wherrytown, Penzance, on an elvan dyke 210 yards from the shore. From about 1778 a shaft inside a wooden turret, reached by a trestle bridge, was worked between tides; it was wrecked in 1798, briefly revived in 1836-40, and its onshore site became a serpentine works.

History

The Wherry Mine worked a tin-bearing elvan dyke in killas on a reef about 210 yards off the shore at Wherrytown, between Penzance and Newlyn. The reef had been worked for tin when the tide allowed since about the start of the eighteenth century. In or about 1778 Thomas Curtis of Breage sank a shaft on the rocks below high-water mark, protected by a stone breakwater and a wooden turret to keep out the sea, and a trestle bridge joined it to the shore. After Curtis died in 1791 Thomas Gundry and partners took the mine and built a steam engine on shore to drain it; the shaft reached 25 fathoms. Work stopped in 1798, when an American ship broke from its moorings and drifted onto the shafthead, though other accounts blame storms, high tides and a failing lode. Tin worth £70,000 is said to have been sold before 1818.

A proposal to reopen in 1823 came to nothing. In 1836 a new company built a pier and installed a 40-inch engine on shore, with an engine house, count house and smiths' shop on the sandy towans, but work ceased in 1840 and the engine was sold at auction; a little ore was raised in 1859. Three Penzance businessmen then bought the derelict site and built a serpentine works there, whose products went to the Great Exhibition of 1851. A last attempt to reopen the mine in 1967 built a temporary quay to the Laregan rocks. At low tide the outcrop can still be seen.

Geology

Cassiterite in an elvan (quartz porphyry) dyke cutting metamorphosed killas, exposed on a reef 210 yards offshore.

Workings

A shaft sunk on the reef below high-water mark inside a wooden turret and stone breakwater, joined to the shore by a trestle bridge, drained by a steam engine on shore; later a pier and a 40-inch engine.

Closure

Wrecked in 1798 (by a drifting ship, or by storms and high tides); revived from 1836 until 1840, when the engine was sold; a little ore in 1859 and an abortive reopening in 1967.

What remains

The outcrop on the reef can be seen at low tide.

Redevelopment

The onshore site became a serpentine works in the 1840s; the shore and towans have since been eroded and built over by the promenade.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• Work stopped in 1798 when an American ship drifted onto the shafthead. (disputed) ²
• By 1789 the bridge was destroyed and work stopped. (disputed) ¹

Recorded claims

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

• The mine lay about 210 yards from the shore opposite Wherrytown. ¹
• Thomas Curtis of Breage sank a shaft on the rocks below high-water mark in about 1778. ²
• The shaft was sunk inside a wooden casing joined to the shore by a trestle bridge. ^1,2
• Work stopped in 1798 when an American ship drifted onto the shafthead. (disputed) ²
• By 1789 the bridge was destroyed and work stopped. (disputed) ¹
• Ore sold before 1818 was said to be worth £70,000. ¹
• A new company installed a 40-inch engine on shore in 1836; work ceased in 1840. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) NMRS: Wherry Mine — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) Wikipedia: Wherrytown — Wikipedia

Record created: 11 October 2026 · Last researched: 11 October 2026