Danescombe Mine

Nestled in the woods

In the woods above Danescombe lie the abandoned shafts of other mines; and only a short and beautiful walk away is Cotehele, a noteworthy unaltered medieval house owned by the National Trust. We took a long lease from the National Trust for this Landmark, which was in a dilapidated state and without a roof.

Following a careful restoration it now makes a comfortable base to get a good sense of the tremendous past of the Devon and Cornish mining industry. This was a dreadful but romantic trade that has its own mythology and enriched, among others, the Dukes of Bedford and the family of William Morris. The mine worked on and off from 1822 to 1900, kept alive by the demand for arsenic which protected cotton against the boll weevil.

The living room leads onto wooden decking where you can sit out and overhear the stream running past the back door and wonder what life was like here a century ago.

There were further operations at the mine and the closely related Wheal Calstock mine between 1846 and 1868, the company's name being changed to Calstock Consols in 1850. The machinery was sold off in 1872. Then the mine was restarted again in 1888 and both copper and arsenic were produced. After 1900 production ceased, though there was some later prospecting in the valley.

The varying fortunes of the Danescombe mine and the replacement of copper by arsenic as the main product were the result not only of the unpredictability of mining, but also of the changing economic situation. Copper mining was rendered unprofitable in Cornwall by the discovery of deposits in Cube, South Australia, Chile and then Michigan, culminating in the great copper slump of 1866-8. Tin became the mainstay of Cornish mining after copper declined, but the opening-up of the Australian tin deposits brought about a slump in the 1870s. The subsequent opening of mines in the Malay states and in Bolivia after 1900 further injured the Cornish tin mines. In 1891 there were 6,156 men and boys classed as miners in Cornwall; seven years later this number was 2,749. Thus the events in Danescombe are representative of the experience at all Cornish mines. Even today, the decline of the world tin price can make Cornish tin uneconomic to mine and thus what was once the country's main industry is virtually extinct.

In the course of restoration the following alterations were made. A new staircase of steel strings and traditional cast-iron open chequer type treads was placed at the north end of the building and new floors were inserted at the levels of the original platforms. A concrete slab was poured at the entrance level over the pit, which housed the condenser and this and the higher ground floor were finished with the used slate flagstones. The upper floors were laid over now softwood joists; the new floor covered what would have been the large hole for the tall condenser. The roof trusses, of softwood, were left exposed, whilst the covering is random width Delabole slates with a grey clay ridge tile. It is almost certain that the original slates would have come from that famous Cornish slate quarry or one very near it. By great good luck it was possible to reinstate the cast-iron window frames. A firm was found, Irons Bros. of Wadebridge, who still had the moulds for the window frames of the right size and new ones were cast.

The buff-coloured bricks for the quoins, which had originally been made at Calstock nearby, were matched with some from the brick yard of Messrs. Hexter Humpherson of Newton Abbot. From these a new flight of steps was made between the boiler house and crushing plant building. A terrace of open timber slats was made at the top of walls which carried the axles of the winding gear and balance wheels, surrounded with a traditional balustrade consisting of diagonal criss-cross members. This has been painted in the red-oxide colour which is still commonly used in the county. Almost the only alteration that was made to the original plan was the new top window. The gap where the lever of the main engine would have protruded was glassed over, forming a top bedroom with a wonderful view down the valley.

As part of our extensive programme of maintenance across our portfolio, in 2022, we closed Danescombe and began a major upgrade. With the reinvigorated building now welcoming guests once again, it was a complex project including important changes to meet new fire regulations, the installation of new windows and the introduction of a brand new kitchen.

Read more about Danescombe Mine's latest renovation