Minions is a small village on the south-east corner of Bodmin Moor. Near the car park, one of the engine houses of the South Phoenix mine has been converted into the a heritage centre which interprets the history of the surrounding landscape. The area surrounding Minions offers a wealth of archaeological interest from early Bronze Age to the Tin and Copper Mining which finished early in the last century. Most of the village is over 300m, and Minions claims to be the highest village in Cornwall, rivalling St Breward.
At the junction of tracks you can also turn right to take an optional diversion to the Minions Heritage Centre.
Minions Heritage Centre is located in the restored Houseman's Engine House of the South Phoenix mine. The building contains a permanent exhibition on the history, ecology, archaeology and mining heritage of the surrounding area.
The Cheesewring Hotel in Minions claimed to be Cornwall's highest pub, at an altitude of 995ft. It opened as a coaching inn in 1863 and in more recent times was a hotel and restaurant serving local food and a variety of Cornish ales. An electrical fault in the winter of 2021 caused a fire and despite the efforts of firefighters, the pub burned down.
The Liskeard and Caradon Railway was a mineral railway built to transport granite, copper and tin ore from around Minions to Looe Harbour. The journey from Moorswater to Looe was initially on the Liskeard and Looe Union Canal and later on the Liskeard and Looe Railway which was built alongside the canal.
The railway opened in 1844 and was powered initially by gravity and horses. The full wagons ran downhill under gravity with brakes to control their speed. Each wagon was individually piloted by a brakesman. The empty wagons were then hauled uphill the next day by horses.
The wooden structure protruding into the gully is more recent than the railway and was used for a rock crusher which was balanced on the wooden beams so a trailer could be driven underneath to capture the gravel. The chippings were used to construct nearby lanes and tracks.
The sloping gully was known as the Gonamena Incline after the nearby settlement of Gonamena which was first recorded in 1388. The name is based on the Cornish word for "moorland".
The Gonamena Incline was gravity-powered. Wagons were attached to ropes and a heavy full wagon raised a lighter empty wagon. This was a bottleneck in the railway as only one wagon could travel at a time and there had to be both a full and empty wagon available.
The grassy track crossing the gully was constructed after the railway closed.
Rather than wood, granite from the Cheesewring quarry was used for the railway sleepers. This saved money but the heavy sleepers had a tendency to sink slightly into the ground after heavy rainfall. This buckled the tracks which caused frequent derailments.
Caradon Hill is the 6th highest hill in Cornwall with a 371 metre summit. The name is thought to originate from the Cornish word car for fort. The slopes are dotted with the remains of engine houses and the area was once famous for its copper mines, which were discovered relatively late in Cornwall's mining history. In an account documented in the early 20th Century, the area was described:
On Saturday nights after pay-day, the populous villages of Caradon Town, Pensilva, Minions and Crows Nest were crowded with men, and resembled in character the mining camps of Colorado and the Far West.
The waste tips and the ruins of an engine house up the track to the right are from West Caradon Mine.
Other than the waste tips, very little remains above ground of West Caradon Mine which was the second largest in the area, producing over 85,000 tons of copper ore during its lifetime. Mining began in 1839 and by 1844 the mine was rapidly expanding with 500 employees by 1850. By the 1860s, production was declining as the large mineral reserves in the valley had been exhausted and mining operations moved onto smaller veins of ore further west. The mine closed in 1874 after a fall in copper prices. The western area of the mine was re-worked on a small scale in the 1880s as New West Caradon mine.
The transmitter station on Caradon Hill was built in 1961 to bring ITV in black-and-white to South West England for the first time. In 1969 it was chosen to become a main station in the new colour television network. It was also one of two sites used for the first commercial radio broadcasts in Cornwall in 1992. Digital switchover was completed in 2009 and antenna now broadcasts TV & radio coverage as far as Truro, Bude, Plymouth and Barnstaple. It has a 780 ft mast, the top of which could be regarded as the highest man-made point in Cornwall, standing 613 ft above the summit of Brown Willy.
Deep in the earth's crust where there is lots of sulphur and little oxygen (hence the smelly sulphur compounds around volcanic vents), copper occurs as crystals of sulphide compounds. Nearer the surface, chemical reactions with air and water form brick-red oxide and blue-green carbonate compounds and also copper sulphate. The latter is the blue stuff from school science lessons which you may vaguely recall is soluble in water; thus it became concentrated at the water table. In the Ice Ages that followed, Cornwall was scoured by glaciers which bulldozed away many of these concentrated deposits. Early copper mining took place on the few remaining areas of these surface layers, but it was not until innovations in pumping technology that copper mining could be carried out on the deeper sulphide deposits and these account for the bulk of the ore mined. The most common ore (called chalcopyrite) is a copper-bearing version of "fool's gold"; when pure it looks like gold but where it meets air and water, patches of iridescent green, blue and purple form and so it was known as "peacock copper".
The remains of leats and ponds in the valley still trap rainwater and provide a habitat for dragonflies.
Dragonflies are named after the way they hunt, as both the larvae and adults are carnivorous predators. Mosquitoes form a large part of their diet both for adults and particularly for the larvae (nymphs). One dragonfly can eat tens of mosquitoes in a day and an average of over 100 per day has been recorded for the nymphs of some species. It is thought that this is an important factor in keeping the mosquito population under control. Dragonfly nymphs have a massive lower jaw to engulf their prey (a bit like an Angler Fish) and are also able to propel themselves by shooting a jet of water out of their anus.
The commonest copper ore - chalcopyrite - is often hard and brittle with a tendency to break into a very fine powder. Tin mines were operated by mechanically crushing all the rocks and then concentrating the granules of ore through a series of processes using water. However, with copper, this would have led to large amounts of fine ore particles being lost as waste so instead as much of the processing as possible was done by hand, leaving mechanical stamping for only the hardest of rocks.
The right-hand of the three tracks was once a tramway from West Caradon Mine which connected with the railway at Darite.
Sycamore is a member of the maple family which is why the leaves look a bit like the Canadian flag. Although sycamore doesn't have the striking red autumn colour of other maples, the young leaves and developing seeds are a vivid red colour which is caused by similar red anthrocyanin compounds.
The first record of the settlement of Crow's Nest is from 1699 which is reflected in the name being English rather than Cornish. The Crows Nest Inn is a 17th Century building which became an alehouse when the Caradon Glasgow Mine was set up near Tokenbury Manor and the miners received some of their pay in beer. The quirky name of the mine arose because anything containing the word "Caradon" was deemed to be good to attract investors (given the huge success of the other Caradon mines), and the mine secretary came from Glasgow!
The stream is the upper reaches of the River Seaton and the railway bridge was built during the initial construction phase of the railway in the 1840s.
The source of the River Seaton is in Minions near the Cheesewring Hotel and it connects with two tributary streams running through St Cleer. Due to the copper mining activity around Caradon Hill, the tributary streams contain dissolved copper salts where the groundwater drains from old mines or percolates through waste tips. The level of copper in the main river is not high enough to prevent fish living in it but it does restrict the invertebrate species that are able to live in the river and so the fish population is lower than surrounding rivers as there is less for them to eat. The river runs for just over 10 miles before reaching the sea at Seaton beach.
A trial excavation via an adit (horizontal tunnel) on Caradon hill initially proved unpromising and so the South Caradon mining sett was bought and sold a number of times, sometimes for as little as a guinea. In 1833 it was acquired by a group of miners who failed to raise capital in London to develop it but nevertheless persevered for three years until they struck the main copper lode. Almost overnight their shares rose in value to £2000 (equivalent to a quarter of a million pounds in 2018) and over the subsequent decades they became very wealthy indeed. By the 1840s, there were nearly 4000 miners working in the district and South Caradon became the largest copper mine in the UK.
The large ruined building was a smithy.
The mine office (count house) was on the opposite side of the path from the smithy.
Further down the slope towards the valley floor were the dressing floors where much of the ore was processed by hand to minimise waste
An engine house situated on the opposite side of the path from the large chimney contained a stamping engine which was used to break the more stubborn pieces of rock.
The group of buildings at the bend in the track was known as "The Yard" as they were arranged around an open yard. Photos of the site from the 19th century show that the buildings and even the chimney were originally rendered and whitewashed. The chimney provided heating for two Miner's Dries (changing rooms). Changing out of dirty, wet clothes before a long walk home was a significant factor in reducing deaths from lung disease. Other buildings around the yard included a tool shed, wash house and even a barber's shop. This significant investment in miners' welfare may have arisen because the owners of the mine had once been miners themselves.
The engine house was for a pumping engine at Jope's shaft installed in the 1860s. In the 1870s, this was adapted to drive a "man engine" to allow miners to reach the increasingly deep levels of the mine.
The small path on the left side of the main track leads along the edge of the mine tips to behind "The Yard" to a large pond known as "Donkey Pond"
Donkey Pond was originally filled by leat from the river. There is a wheel pit below the pond so it was presumably used for the waterwheel.
The engine houses along the path to the left were another part of South Caradon Mine known as "Old Sump".
"Old Sump" was the first area of the mine worked with an engine in the 1830s. Situated near Sump Shaft are the remains of a pumping engine. Slightly higher up the slope is the remains of a smaller engine house used for a winding engine used to raise ore from the mine. A series of flat rods were used to transfer mechanical power up the hill from this to Pierce's Shaft.
Pumping at Pierce's Shaft (surrounded by the wire fence) was initially done using power transferred via a series of flat rods leading uphill from the winding engine below at Sump Shaft. An engine house for a dedicated pumping engine was built alongside Pierce's Shaft to replace this and brought into service in 1870. The shaft itself is unusual in that it doesn't meet the surface vertically like most but instead is at an angle. This is why the engine house needed buttresses to support it against the sideways force from the weight of the pumping rod hanging down the angled shaft.
The two large engine houses on the same side of the track were for pumping engines added in the 1860s and 1870s. There were two shafts here (Holman's and Rule's) and each had its own engine house. Both engine houses shared a chimney located on the opposite side of the track and a series of leats and wooden launders (aqueducts) were used to transport water from ponds higher up the hill to the boilers. The remains of the building on the opposite side of the track was a winding engine, used to service both shafts.
The temperature of the rocks increases by 1 degree roughly for each 15 fathoms that a mine is sunk so mines were unpleasantly hot places to work. The deepest mine in Cornwall was Dulcoath where air temperatures of 43°C were recorded at the 550 fathom level.
The large numbers of miners' candles in the relatively confined spaces also served to push up the temperature further. In some mines it was so warm that miners candles were liable to melt away unless surrounded in water.
The tips are from Kittow's shaft which marked the far end of the South Caradon workings. There was a pumping engine and winding engine (to raise ore from the mine) here and by 1884, this area had become the main focus of activity as ore in the western area had been exhausted. The man engine was removed from Jope's shaft, refurbished, and reinstalled here. This didn't prove to be successful and by the end of 1885, work underground ceased. There was a brief re-opening in 1889 when the copper price doubled but in less than a year the mine had closed for the final time.
The ponies on Bodmin Moor are semi-feral: they are all owned by farmers, but allowed to roam free on the moor. Many are not microchipped and look similar to others, so for people other than their owners, it can be difficult to tell to whom they actually belong. During the winter, natural food is scarce so the farmers supplement the ponies' diets; this prevents the ponies wandering off altogether.
From 1860 work began on extending the railway along the south side of Caradon Hill and also to bypass the inclined plane at Gonamena. By 1861, the Crows Nest end of the railway had been extended as far as East Caradon mine but the Gonamena bypass was never finished.
The track here once carried the railway to East Caradon Mine.
In 1840 as the South Caradon Mine was booming, some prospecting was carried out further east but this didn't locate any lodes of ore. Further prospecting took place in the 1850s which eventually located the lodes but it wasn't until the 1860s that the mine was working profitably.
The mine was connected underground to others including South Caradon mine, and although the mineral reserves of East Caradon were not exhausted, it was forced to close in 1885 due to the cost of pumping out the water from the interconnected network of mines. There were brief unsuccessful attempts in 1889 and 1907 to re-open the mine. Most of the above-ground structures including the engine houses have been largely demolished.
In 1877, a railway around the Marke Valley side of Caradon Hill was opened, connecting the Cheesewring Quarry with the railway already at East Caradon Mine. The old railway on the other side of the hill involving the Gonamena Incline was closed immediately.
The route here follows the railway trackbed of the Marke Valley section.
The engine houses either side of the track are from Wheal Jenkin.
Wheal Jenkin was a tin mine which was initially worked using shallow shafts drained by an adit and was deepened in the 1830s using steam-powered pumping engines whilst "stamps" to crush the ore were powered by water wheels. The engine houses remain from a later period of working in the 1880s. The tall engine house was used for a pumping engine. The chimney collapsed when an old mine shaft (probably from the 1830s) opened up beneath it. The engine house on the other side of the track was used to power "stamps" to crush the tin ore and the area around this was for processing.
Minions lies on the edge of the designated AONB area of Bodmin Moor.
The area of Bodmin Moor designated as an Outstanding Natural Beauty also has an International Dark Sky designation due to an exceptionally high quality night sky. Cornwall Council has committed to protect this as part of its Planning considerations.
The Hurlers is a group of 3 stone circles, near the village of Minions on the eastern flank of Bodmin Moor, which date from the Bronze Age: around 1500 BC. The name is said to derive from a legend in which a group of men were turned into stone as a punishment for playing a game of Cornish hurling on the Sabbath.
In 2013, the strip of grass between the centres of the stone circles was excavated to uncover a 4000 year old cobbled stone pavement joining the two circles. Archaeologists describe this as a "unique" structure.
More information about the Hurler Stone Circles from the Cornwall Heritage Trust.
Beard-like lichens (known as Old Man's Beard) are very sensitive to sulphur dioxide in the air. Where the air quality is poor, at best they only manage to grow a few millimetres and may not survive at all. Long beards are therefore an indicator of clean air.
Llamas and Alpacas are both from South America and are members of the camel family. Llamas are the larger of the two with longer (banana-sized) ears and a longer face. Alpacas have a very short, blunt face and have been bred for fleece production so they have shaggy hair rather like a sheep. Llamas have been bred for transporting goods (similarly to camels) hence their larger size.
There are 33 designated National Landscape regions in England many of which were created at the same time as the National Parks. In fact the AONB status is very similar to that of National Parks.
A single Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) was established in 1959 and is itself subdivided into 12 sections. 11 of these are stretches of the coastline and the 12th is Bodmin Moor. In 2023, the AONBs in England and Wales were renamed National Landscapes to better reflect the similarity in their status to National Parks.
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