"soon the
scene presented another abrupt and extraordinary change. We had been walking
hitherto amid almost invariable silence
and solitude; but now with each succeeding minute,
strange mingled, unintermitting noises began to grow louder and louder
around us. We followed a sharp
curve in the tramway, and immediately found ourselves saluted
by an entirely new prospect,
and surrounded by an utterly bewildering noise. All around us monstrous
wheels turned slowly; machinery
was clanking and groaning in the hoarsest discords; invisible waters
were pouring onwards with a rushing sound;
high above our heads , on skeleton platforms, iron chains clattered fast
and fiercely over iron pulleys, and huge steam pumps puffed and gasped,
and slowly raised their heavy black beams
of wood. Far beneath the embankment on which we stood, men women and
children were breaking and washing ore in a perfect marsh of copper
coloured mud and copper coloured water.
We had penetrated to the very centre of the noise, the bustle
and the population on the surface of a great mine"
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Wilkie
Collins was a Victorian novelist and this account is more descriptive than
factual. It gives a graphic image of the view during the mine's heyday. The embankment on which
the author stood is now part of the footpath.
For more views from the
footpath click here.
In 1851 the mine produced
2,818 tons of ore along with 296 tons of metallic copper.
A production which earned
the mine an income of £20,208.
South Caradon was still
growing; the amount of ore raised and income would triple in the years
that followed.
The railway
line on which the author stood was a major factor in the success of
the mine. It enabled the cost effective transport of the vast quantities
of ore down to the port of Looe and to return with the coal needed to feed
the gasping steam pumps. Over 7,000 tonnes of ore a year would be transported
over its rails.
For a brief summary of its
history Click here.
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TeamManley
