Welcome to Poldark Mine, So Much More Than Just A Tin Mine...

Poldark Mine is situated within the Wendron Mining District of the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site. One of the oldest mining districts in Cornwall where unique evidence of tin production in prehistory proves the antiquity of the industry in Cornwall. The Poldark site was the scene of tin production, both above and below ground for thousands of years.

The Wendron Valley and the River Cober alluvials contained important deposits of the tin ore Cassiterite, tin oxide.

At Poldark the valley narrows and it would have been here that some of the richest tin deposits were to be found.

In 2001 a Mortar Outcrop was discovered in the Main Car Park, indisputable evidence of tin production here over 2,000 years ago.

A lease to the Poldark site between the Duchy of Cornwall and John Trenere dated 1493, the year after Columbus discovered America, is the world's first record of water powered equipment for crushing tin ore. The lease was for the Stamping Mills, situated where our present water wheel is located beside the Museum, and the rights to the water courses, or 'Leats' carrying water to the Stamps which follow the contours of the valley for a mile and a half above the site, bringing water from the River Cober to the water wheel.

Tin streamers working the valley discovered the outcrop of a lode near the present day main car park entrance. The Lode was followed under the Poldark site and into the hillside. The tin mine was known as Wheal Roots.

The workings were extended to the north to include at least two other tin lodes and to an unknown depth. As with many Cornish mines of the period few records exist and those that do remain buried in the archives of the Duchy of Cornwall. Much of what is known of the mine comes from archaeological evidence and items recovered during operations to open the mine to the public in the 1970s and 80s.

An important producer of tin from prehistoric times and the most important source of alluvial tin in west Cornwall the Wendron Mining District of the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site is amongst the oldest in Cornwall.

John Norden recorded that in the 1580's the three most important tin mines in Kerrier district were Roselidden, later part of the Trumpet Consols group, Porkellis and Gorlimoe.

Whilst not noted for large and famous mines there were an unusually large number of mineral ventures, in fact the second largest number for a district in the County at 640.