Wherrytown

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coordinates: 50°06′40″N 5°32′28″W / 50.111°N 5.541°W / 50.111; -5.541

Wherrytown is a small settlement in west Cornwall, United Kingdom, situated between Newlyn and Penzance on the east side of the Laregan River and now considered to be part of Penzance. [1] The village bore the brunt of the Ash Wednesday storm on 7 March 1962 with most of the buildings destroyed along with nearly one mile of the seafront from the Battery Rocks to Tolcarne heavily damaged. The only Wherrytown building to survive was the Mount's Bay Inn, currently an Indian restaurant.[2] At low spring tides fossilised trees are exposed.

Past industries

In 1778 Thomas Curtis of Breage sunk a shaft on the Werrytown rocks below the high tide mark. The shaft was protected by a stone breakwater and a wooden turret to keep the sea out. On the death of Curtis in 1791 the mine was acquired by Thomas Gundry along with unnamed partners, and a steam engine was built onshore to drain the mine. The operations came to a halt in 1798, when an American ship broke its moorings and drifted on to the shafthead demolishing it. £70,000 worth of tin ore was sold in total.[2][3][4] In 1823 a proposal to reopen came to nothing[2] and in 1836 a new company was formed building a new pier and installing a 40 inch engine onshore. Operations ceased in 1840 and the engine sold. The last attempt was in 1967 when a temporary quay was built to the end of the nearby Laregan rocks .[3]

The Serpentine Works on what is now the Bolitho Gardens was erected in 1854 and made ornaments from serpentine from the Lizard. The building was demolished in 1916.[5]

Bodilly & Co. build a large flour mill near to the site of the Wheal Wherry Mine engine house in 1874. The mill was disused by 1906 and in 1920 demolished. The site was taken over and used as a bus depot by Western National and is now a Lidl supermarket. [3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 203 Land's End ISBN 978-0-319-23148-7
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Pool, P. A. S. (1974) The History of the Town and Borough of Penzance. Penzance: Corporation of Penzance.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Laws, P. (1978) The Industries of Penzance. Cornwall: Trevithick Society
  4. ↑ Bart, Arthur (June 1949). "The Wherry mine, Penzance, its history and its mineral productions.". The Mineralogical Magazine and Journal of The Mineralogical Society. XXVIII (205): 517–536. 
  5. ↑ Bird, Sheila (1987). Bygone Penzance and Newlyn. Chichester: Phillimore & Co Ltd. ISBN 0850336333. 

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.