Treasure those Memories … part 2 … early days, Hawk's Point mining, St Ives coastal railway ...

 

Well ‘we left me’ in my very young nakedness on Carbis Bay Beach … my grandmother’s house was about half-way down the steep Porthrepta Road to the beach … and Carbis Bay Hotel, where the G7 Summit is going to be held (apparently!) …

 

Carbis Bay - looking south east towards
Lelant and Hayle;
Carrack Gladden headland + Hawks Point cliffs

 … opposite St Anta church and Hendra’s Hotel … my great uncle and his wife would come across from St Ives to the church – these two my mother would look after in her Care Home into their late 80s – they were great fun and we often visited them in St Ives.

 

St Anta Church, Carbis Bay

A little lower down Porthrepta road there was a lane through to a rough path above the railway line, which took us through nut groves … always overgrown – but if the steam train passed and the driver saw us … we’d get a toot, or two! – just what kids needed – we waited with baited breath on hearing the puffing billy approach.

 

 

It was not maintained in my day!

This track is now the 21^st century South West Coastal Path – there’s lots of information on the net about the various routes.  Back in the day – we’d grope through the hazel nut fronds pushing out to claim their light …

 

 

… this took us round Carrack Gladden headland and on towards the sand-dunes of Lelant … but hidden in these rocks above the path was Hawk’s Point – an early mine producing 670 tons of copper, 1 ton of ochre and some tin – most during its short life 1851 – 1870.   (see first photo above).

 

St Ives station c 1890

Hacked out from these 60 metre (200 foot) cliffs … transported somehow – possibly by mule to be smelted or processed at a local mine … probably via Hayle to the major mining area of Camborne/Redruth during the 1800s – 1900s – South Crofty, the last mine, closed in 1998.

 

 

Tin Mining Redruth, c 1890

Mining began in the early Bronze Age (bronze is mostly copper with some tin) … and it is possible that the Phoeniceans controlled tin mining (one of the earliest metals to be exploited) (c 1250 BC) … but more likely under the Veneti tribe of Brittany – trading with the Roman Empire.

 

 

Steam train coming from St Ives towards
Carbis Bay - with fishing boat 1950

But the railway did get to its westerly terminal, Penzance, in 1852 … and the branch line to St Ives opened in 1877 … too late for the ‘scraggy’ Hawk’s Point mine.

 

I’m having difficulty breaking down these snippets of remembrances into salient posts … but I think I’ve worked it out finally!  

Ad in the late 1920s or 1930s

I’m going to cover the first 20 years of my life to 1968 – the time my grandparents were still alive and living in Carbis Bay, before my mother moved her mother over to the house she’d bought in Penzance/Newlyn – where she made her future life.  They won’t be long … bits of history added in …

For info: T for Tin Miners ... post

 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

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