Regional Report: Botallack Mine, Botallack, Botallack - Pendeen Area, St Just District, Cornwall, England, UK

Worked under the name Botallack, the sett includes the mines Cock, Crowns, Carnyorth, Botallack and Parknoweth. The workings commenced as a number of small mines some of which are now only represented as shafts (e.g. Wheals Bal, Hen, Tolvan, Button and Hazard) The early history of the mines is not known but it’s lodes have been exploited since at least 1721. The submarine levels at Wheat Cock were being worked in 1778, when Pryce described how the miners were frightened by the rumbling of the rocks on the sea-bed above them during a storm. Joseph Carne stated in 1822 that it had been “....wrought under the sea beyond the memory of any person now living.....” In 1858 work began on sinking the famous Boscawen Diagonal Shaft at the Crowns to provide access to the seaward extension of its lodes a third of a mile under the Atlantic. Many distinguished visitors came to Botallack to descend the shaft. Among them were the Prince and Princess of Wales (later Edward VII and Queen Alexandra) who were here on July 24th, 1865; Prince Arthur, Queen Victoria’s 12 year-old son; a party of senior officers of the Russian Navy; R. N. Ballantyne, the well-known Victorian author. None appear to have been deterred by an accident in 1863 when the wagon chain broke, sending 8 men and a boy hurtling to their deaths. These underground 'adventures' became so popular among the nobility and the leisured class that they threatened to become a hindrance to the working of the mine unless they were restricted. A charge of half a guinea was imposed on each visitor. The money was donated to a fund for the relief of widows and injured miners. During the 1870's, as a result of a severe mining depression, Botallack began to make heavy losses, and in 1874 the Crowns section was abandoned. The adventurers struggled on for another 20 years but finally, in 1895, following the collapse of an underground dam in Wheat Cock, which flooded that section of the 112 fathom level, the mine was closed. In 1905 a rise in the price of tin encouraged a new company to re-start Botallack. A new vertical shaft, known as Allen's Shaft, was sunk. After several disappointing years and the expenditure of a great deal of money, the enterprise was wound up and Botallack closed for a second time on March 14th, 1914. Further exploration and a small amount of development work took place at Botallack during the 1980s through the expansion plans of Geevor Tin Mines. An extensive history of the mine is given in "BOTALLACK", by Cyril Noall. The coordinates given are those of Allen's Shaft.

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