Ghostly Ruins Clitters Mine Gunnislake Cornwall
by Richard Brookes
Title
Ghostly Ruins Clitters Mine Gunnislake Cornwall
Artist
Richard Brookes
Medium
Photograph
Description
The ghostly, poignant ruins of Gunnislake Clitters Mine are almost hidden in the mist and forested slopes of Clitters Wood on the banks of the River Tamar, near Gunnislake, Calstock parish, Tamar Valley, SE Cornwall, SW England, UK.
The fascinating riverside pumping engine house, built in 1882 housed a 22 inch rotative pumping steam engine which was installed and working in November of that year. Ruins of the boiler house are adjacent to the left and held a 15 ton Lancashire Boiler, 7ft diameter by 30ft long, which also supplied steam to a 15 inch engine driving a compressor. The remains of two settling tanks are also nearby. The main engine supplied clean river water to the Skinner's Shaft boiler house further upslope and also augmented the water supply to the lower slope dressing floor.
Water draining from the mine from the Clitters Adit is still flowing in front and under these buildings discharging into the River Tamar through the old water wheel housings and wheel pit which predated this steam engine. The adit reached over 2,950 feet (900m) in length. Cutting across successive lodes, it gave access to and drained water from workings and shafts extending from it. The separate flued chimney stack is in the foreground. Water was fed to the engine house by a leat cut along the riverside and taken off the river at a weir 175m upstream of the engine house. The main export route for the mine's ore in the 1860s-1880s was a track from the lower dressing floors to the riverside and on to the head of the Tamar Navigation at Gunnislake.
The mine sett was leased from the mineral owners the Duke of Cornwall and the Rev. H. W. Bedford. The area was extensively mined over the last centuries. As mining techniques and technology improved deeper lodes could be reached. This mine opened in 1820 but the main period of production was between 1860 and 1890. Records of production for the mine were: 1822 to 1827 - 40 tons of copper ore.
1860-69 to 1902-20s - 33,310 tons of 8.25% copper ore and 510 tons of black tin.
Latterly, in the 1900s a reprocessing mill was built nearby where new electrically powered equipment and better capturing techniques were used to recover more ore and also arsenic and wolfram (for tungsten) by reworking the existing mine spoil heaps.
The mine worked a number of lodes, the major ones being:
Bonney Lode (also known as No.1 Lode);
Skinners Lode;
New Tin Lode;
No.2 or South Lode; and
Greenstone Lode.
These lodes were worked from mainly Skinner's Shaft on Bonney Lode and New Shaft on South Lode.
The mine is a protected Schedule II listed monument. The area is also recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage site part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape (number 1215), falling within Callington Mining District. The pioneering industrial developments, innovations and techniques used in this area were hugely important to the Industrial Revolution and exported all over the world.
Taken on a dull, wet January day.
Uploaded
December 23rd, 2018
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Viewed 2,343 Times - Last Visitor from Ann Arbor, MI on 03/18/2024 at 9:18 PM
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Comments (20)
Douglas Taylor
Beautifully captured scene, Richard. I really appreciate the detailed description. It really fleshes out the back-story that is missing from so many images. v/f
Richard Brookes replied:
Many thanks Douglas that's really appreciated. A few years back I realised I didn't always understand what I was looking at. I now try and research these historical sites before I visit so I don't miss so much and have some idea what to look for. It also brings them to life a little I think. Hopefully some of these images at the more remote and less well visited and less accessible locations will provide a contemporary photographic record especially for those buildings in danger of collapse.
Jenny Revitz Soper
CONGRATULATIONS! This enchanting piece has been FEATURED on the homepage of the FAA Artist Group No Place Like Home, 2/05/2019! Way to go! Please post it in the Group's Features discussion thread for posterity and/or any other thread that fits!
Michael Mazaika
The list makes the image. Great vision, Richard. - Mike (V)
Richard Brookes replied:
Thank you Michael, the mist certainly added more atmosphere although there is plenty surrounding the site given its overgrown and slightly hidden location.
Jan Mulherin
Congratulations and Happy New Year!! This beautiful image has been selected to be featured for the week in the “Forests and Woodlands” Group Home Page. You are welcome to add a preview of this featured image to the group’s discussion post titled “2019 January: Featured Images and Thank-you’s” for a permanent display within the group, to share this achievement with others. If enabled, your group image will be posted to our group Google+ page for further exposure. Thank you for your participation in the “Forests and Woodlands” group! (January 17, 2019)
Suzanne Wilkinson
A lovely photo! It is easy to imagine it being the site of a fairytale! l/f
Richard Brookes replied:
Thank you Suzanne, so pleased you like it. Yes i know what you mean. When you are there it feels a special, enchanted sort of place, very quiet and still apart from the sound of water emptying from the old adit into the river below.
Luther Fine Art
Congratulations! Your fantastic photographic art has been chosen as a Camera Art Group feature! You are invited to archive your work in the Features Archive discussion as well as any other discussion in which it would fit!
Nisah Cheatham
Congrats! This photo has been featured on the UNESCO World Heritage Sites group on FAA/Pixels. • • • You are invited to archive your photo at the following Discussion Topic: https://fineartamerica.com/groups/1-unesco-world-heritage-sites.html?showmessage=true&messageid=4142064
John M Bailey
Congratulations on your feature in the Fine Art America Group "Images That Excite You!"
William Rogers
A lot of the relatives came from Yorkshire I need a good map next lol
Richard Brookes replied:
Haha. If you need old UK maps the National Library of Scotland (believe it or not) https://maps.nls.uk/ is a good place to search.
William Rogers
Doing family research right now, love all the information, our blood line goes back to Sir Wyatt and Anne Skinner? I am still working on more information. Nice photos
Richard Brookes replied:
Thank you. That's fascinating William. I've done some of my family history too. It is so absorbing, real detective work. When the price of copper and tin fell here and the mines closed many Cornish miners resettled in the US taking the technology and techniques with them.