Banns, Cornwall

Banns
Banns
 Banns shown within Cornwall
OS grid referenceSW 710 480
Civil parishSt Agnes
Unitary authorityCornwall
Ceremonial countyCornwall
RegionSouth West
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post town TRURO
Postcode district TR4
Dialling code 01209
Police Devon and Cornwall
Fire Cornwall
Ambulance South Western
EU Parliament South West England
UK ParliamentCamborne and Redruth
List of places
UK
England
Cornwall

Coordinates: 50°17′17″N 5°12′58″W / 50.288°N 5.216°W

Banns is a hamlet in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom situated between Mount Hawke and Porthtowan[1] at grid reference SW 710 480 in the civil parish of St Agnes.[2] The South West Coast Path is 2 km (1.2 mi) to the west of the hamlet.[1]

There is another place called Banns in the civil parish of St Buryan.[3]

Description

There are three principal features that define the Banns area: the vale or hollow, a mine and a farm, named Banns Farm.[2] Cottages at Bannsvale Farm in Prince Royal Meadows are holiday rentals.[4][5]

In 1880, there was also a place named Lower Banns near Banns in St Agnes. It was a 13-acre property owned by Francis Harris in 1873.[6][7]

The Banns area includes a meadow named Prince Royal Meadows.[5]

Mining

Banns, which means hollow, is inland from Porthtowan and is surrounded by mines, such as Wheal Coates and Tywarnhayle Mine. There was a small abandoned copper mine named Wheal Banns.[2][8]

The mine was also called the Prince Royal Mine. The mining area was described in 1828 as follows: "Crossing Prince's Common, a most desolate scene meets the eye; the surface is covered with small fragments of red decomposing slate, largely intermixed with pieces of quartz; the uniformity of this desert (which extends for many miles to the right and left) is only broken by the numerous heaps of rubbish, the remains of former mining operations. The fragments of rocks, thus exposed are of a bright red; and are derived from a slate similar to that which succeeds the felspar-rocks north of Cardrew."[9]

By 1843 there was £10,000 invested in the mine improvements with a new company.[10] In 1877 Prince Royal Mine, a tin mine, was owned by L. Walsad and a person with the surname of Duignan. It was located in Scorrier, St Agnes.[11]

In 1881 the mine, now called Wheal Banns, produced and sold a little bit more than a ton of tin, which required a payment of dues to the Duke of Cornwall.[12][13]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 203 Land's End ISBN 978-0-319-23148-7
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Porthtowan, Banns Vale, Mount Hawke and Chapel Porth. St Agnes Forum. p. 2. Retrieved 25 September 2012.
  3. ↑ Weatherhill, Craig (2009). A Concise Dictionary of Cornish Place-Names. Westport, Co. Mayo: Evertype. ISBN 9781904808220; p. 20
  4. ↑ About. Bannsvale Farm Cottages. Retrieved 25 September 2012.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Contact - map (Prince Royal Meadows / Banns location). Bannsvale Farm Cottages. Retrieved 25 September 2012.
  6. ↑ Great Britain. Ordnance Survey. Book of Reference to the Plan of the Parish of St Agnes in the County of Cornwall. Printed by Eyre and Spottiswoode, for Her Majesty's Stationery Office; 1880 [cited 25 September 2012]. p. 34.
  7. ↑ England. Local Government Board. England and Wales. Return of Owners of Land, 1873: Presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty. Her Majesty's Stationery Office; 1875 [cited 25 September 2012]. p. 12.
  8. ↑ Great Britain. Home Office. List of the plans of abandoned mines deposited in the Home Office under the Coal & Metalliferous Mines Regulation Acts. Her Majesty's Stationery Office; 1904 [cited 25 September 2012]. p. 18.
  9. ↑ Royal Geological Society of Cornwall. Transactions of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall. 1828 [cited 25 September 2012]. p. 304.
  10. ↑ Joseph Yelloly Watson. A compendium of British mining, with statistical notices of the principal mines in Cornwall: to which is added. The history and uses of metals, and a glossary of the terms and usages of mining. 1843 [cited 25 September 2012]. p. 46.
  11. ↑ Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. House of Commons papers. HMSO; 1877 [cited 25 September 2012]. p. 398.
  12. ↑ Joseph Henry Collins. Observations on the west of England mining region: being an account of the mineral deposits and economic geology of the region, and forming vol. XIV of the transactions of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall. Author; 1912 [cited 25 September 2012]. p. 408.
  13. ↑ Robert Hunt. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain and of the Museum of Practical Geology. 1882 [cited 25 September 2012]. p. 8.