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The Wherry mine, Penzance, its history and its mineral productions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2018

Arthur Russell
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Extract

If the visitor standing at Wherry Town on the south-western end of the esplanade at Penzance looks seaward he will observe at low tide at some distance from the shore a low scaweed-clothed rocky shoal (fig. 1), and from his now very conventional surroundings it is difficult to realize that upon this shoal, always surrounded by water, there existed many years ago a rich tin mine, unique in the boldness of its conception, romantic in the extreme in its situation and execution, and withal the effort of a poor working miner.

Very fortunately in the year 1790, during the hey-day of its career, this remarkable mine was examined by a very competent observer in the person of John Hawkins (1761 ?-1841), F.R.S., of Trewithen, Cornwall, and Bignor Park, Sussex, and it is to him that we owe most of the details concerning its mode of working, &c. The Wherry mine and its history have always fascinated me, as they must have many others, and in re-telling the old story I have endeavoured to collect all the known facts, both as to the mine itself, its mode of working, and its mineral productions, and in so doing pay tribute to its gallant and resourceful originator Thomas Curtis.

Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical magazine and journal of the Mineralogical Society , Volume 28 , Issue 205 , June 1949 , pp. 517 - 533
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1949

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