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A view of 
South Caradon Mine  
TeamManleyy
 
 
 
 
Facts behind the View 
The Large Shed 
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 In front of  the main adit  can be seen the remains of one of the many light buildings that jostled for room on the flat space of the valley floor.  
In the photograph on the left the footings can of the Northern wall are clearly visible not yet hidden by the growth of summer bracken. The shed was built on the flat area beside the river now crossed by the run off channel. 
 The Minions survey stated that the walls form an extension to the large shed that ran southwards from here on the flood plain between the river and hill slope. Within this building and the others on the valley floor much of the processing of the copper ore would have been undertaken. 
The 19th Century photograph on the left shows the dark end of the roof of this building and behind it a lower roof covering the area behind the counthouse which was probably the spalling floors.
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Map
Dressing floor map
Yard
Main adit
Spalling floor
 

Copper ore dressing was mainly a series of manual tasks requiring large numbers of people. The rock was broken down in size and the ore sorted the ore from the waste by hand.This hand processing was a feature of copper mining and was a result of the nature of copper ores which tended to break in a fine powder if crushed. 

These sheds provided shelter for the hundreds of women that found employment in South Caradon on the dressing floors. 
Collins describes these workers in his 1851 account.
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From Messenger 
 
 
No public right away exists to any of the mine sites visible from this footpath. 
On many mine sites in Cornwall dangers may still exist, many hidden.  
This web site is published as a resource to those using the public right of way.