Main adit t South Caradon

A view of South Caradon Mine

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Facts behind the View
Main Adit

The two adits of the South Caradon mine opened out onto the Seaton Valley floor. This was the lowest level at which water could be naturally drained out of the mine. Main Adit can be seen from the footpath beneath an isolated tree beside the yard wall.

Main lode adit

This is the location from which the Clymo's started their great enterprise. The level dug in from here hit the great wealth of copper that lay undiscovered under Caradon Hill.The adit was originally started in 1823(?) by a miner called Ennor backed by Devonport adventurers. He ceased exploration before the copper was found and the lease changed hands several times before the Clymos restarted the prospecting in 1833.
The digging of such an adit across virgin ground was a common way of discovering new lodes.
The Adit opened out onto the dressing floors and today is run in leaving only a short trench in the hillside. No access exists through the adit to the underground workings. The approximate line of the lodes can be seen on the landscape through Sump and Pearce's shafts.

1833
This is the year the the South Caradon venturers re-started the hunt for copper under Caradon hill. Large exposures of Gozzan on the valley side led them to this area and according to Collins the Adit was started at a point adjacent to an outcrop of a lode exposed in the stream bed. Collins then goes on to explain...

"As they advanced into the deeper ground which the rapid rise of the hill gave them, the small patches of copper ore which at first discernible became larger and more numerous; the lode also began to increase in size, and to give strong indications of leading to a great body of copper ore.
These anticipation's were fully verified as the development proceeded, but it was only by the exercise of the greatest determination , and the straining of their small resources to the uppermost, that the Clymos were enabled to hold on to the stake until the prize was won"

Jenkins states that these favourable indications started to occur at 50 fathoms in from the entrance.

The year in perspective
William IV was still King with the Whigs in power lead by Earl Grey (for whom the tea was made). This was a period of social change after the passing of first reform bill of 1832, the abolition of colonial slavery and the of the first factory act.
An era passed in Cornwall with the death of Richard Trevithick whose development of the steam engine had made deep mining in Cornwall possible and lead to the great copper boom. Another era was starting with the formation of the GWR whose arrival in Cornwall in later years would open up the county to the rest of the country.

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.