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Dolcoath Mine, Camborne, Cornwall. Probably 1890s
Wall Art and Photo Gifts from Royal Cornwall Museum
Dolcoath Mine, Camborne, Cornwall. Probably 1890s
The photograph shows a group of men waiting to go underground. The man on the right with the white coat is probably the lander or banksman. The man to his left, wearing the jacket and waistcoat, might be a mine Captain. Behind him is a man with a long beard, who has the look of a miner. The other three men wearing miners hats with candles attached look like visitors as there are few candles being carried and no tools. One man is wearing Cuban heeled boots. The man sitting with a chin beard and moustache looks similar to other photographs of Oliver Wethered, vice chairman of the Dolcoath Company. The other two young men to the left of picture are dressed in normal clothing. The earliest records of this mine show that it was being worked for copper in 1740, and probably earlier. It was nearly 300ft deep in 1746 and an extensive mine in 1778, when a section of its eastern part was published in Pryces Mineralogis Cornubiensis. It closed ten years later, to reopen in 1799. In the next 120 years it became the largest and deepest mine in Cornwall, with its bottom level 3, 000ft below the surface. Its output of copper and tin ores to 1788 is thought to have been no less than 1, 2500, 000, pounds, of which copper alone realised some 450, 000 between 1740 and 1777. Between 1799 and 1920 its output amounted to over 9 million pounds, including income from sales of arsenic, silver and other minerals. The mine was in the dividend list for most of its working life, and shares, nicknamed Dollies, were the blue chip of the industry. Photographer: John Charles Burrow
TRURI : MIdol.62
Media ID 15389305
© From the collection of the RIC
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