Dolcoath mine

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Harriets Pumping Engine house, part of Dolcoath Mine, built in 1860

Dolcoath mine was a tin and copper mine in Camborne in West Cornwall, with its name coming from the Cornish for 'Old Ground', and was affectionately know as The Queen of Cornish Mines. The mineral rights were owned by the Basset family of Tehidy who are recorded on a deed in 1588 as leasing the ground to a family called Crane. The earliest records show that the mine was being worked for copper in 1720 and propably earlier and it finally closed in 1920. It was nearly 300 feet deep in 1746 and became an extensive mine by 1778. In 1788 it closed briefly, only to reopen in 1799. In the next 120 years it became the largest and deepest mine in Cornwall, with the bottom level 3000 feet below the surface. Its output of copper and tin ores in 1788 is estimated to value no less than £1,250,000, of which copper alone realised £450,000 between 1740 and 1777. Between 1799 and 1920 its output amounted to over £9 million, including income from sales of arsenic, silver and other minerals. The mine was in the dividend list for most of its working life and its shares, nicknamed 'Dollies', were the 'blue chip' of the industry.

Dolcoath was the fifth largest copper producer in Cornwall and Devon, of which there were altogether about 470 mines, both large and small. As depth increased at Dolcoath, the copper died out and was replaced by tin. Between 1853 and 1920 Dolcoath produced a little over 100,000 tons of 'black tin' or 'tin oxide' - by far the largest output of tin from any of the 400 or so mines in Cornwall.

For many years the principle shaft was known as the New Sump Shaft and this ultimately reached a depth of over 3000 feet and its historic pumping engine dated from 1815. By 1882 the mine had reached a depth of 2160 feet and had 12 miles of tunnels passable by men and a further 40 miles of old workings which had become unused and unpassable. In 1893 there was a major accident at the 412 fathom level (2,400 feet from the surface) when 7 men lost their lives and one miner was rescued unhurt after 37 hours of entombment. In 1895 it took men employed in the lower levels between 2-3 hours to go down and return to the surface and consequently they did not work more than 4-5 hours a day.

In 1920 when it had become virtually worked out and following the tin price collapse (new deposits were also being found elsewhere in the world) the old Dolcoath mine finally closed. In 1923 the company was reconstructed when fresh capital was raised and a new 2000 foot circular shaft was sited north of the old mine at Roskear, the New Dolcoath Mine, which was actually an amalgamation of several smaller mines including Stray Park and Roskear.