Portreath Tramway

The Portreath Tramroad, or alternatively the Portreath Tramway was opened in 1815, providing a wagonway route from mines near Scorrier in Cornwall, England, to a port at Portreath, from where it could be transported to market by coastal shipping. It was later extended to serve the Poldice mine near St Day and became known as the Poldice Tramroad, or Poldice Tramway.

It was a horse-drawn plateway, and was the first railway in the county of Cornwall, starting operation in 1809.

As a technological pioneer, it soon became technically obsolescent, but continued in use until about 1865. Much of the route can be discerned today and parts of it can be walked or cycled.

From the sixteenth century, minerals—chiefly copper—had been extracted in the area south-east of Scorrier, in Cornwall, England. Smelting of copper ore required about ten times its weight in coal, and the practice was to transport the ore to a location where there was a ready coal supply, and carry out the smelting there. In the 18th century the Cornish ore was mainly taken to Swansea, earning it the nickname Copperopolis. A small harbour was built for the purpose at Portreath some time between 1713 and 1753. The ore was exported from there and coal and timber were brought in to serve the mining activity, and for the lime kilns. In 1824 the harbour was further improved.

The heavy materials were conveyed the few miles between the mines and the port by pack horse or mule, an expensive and time-consuming means of transport. Seeking an improved means of transport, in 1798 (Francis Basset), "Paid Mr. John Williams subscription towards planning a canal from Portreath £10. 10s. 0d".

In fact the canal was not proceeded with: water supply may have been a problem. In the immediately following years, alternative technologies were being developed. Richard Trevithick had demonstrated his steam road carriage, the Puffing Devil at Camborne in 1801. In the following year he constructed a practical steam hammer at the Penydarren Ironworks and then converted it to a self-propelled locomotive. In a demonstration it successfully hauled a load of ten tons over a distance of 10 miles (16 km).

These developments encouraged Basset and Williams to collaborate in projecting a tramroad, and The Portreath Tram Road Company was created by them and their partners, with a capital of £20,000. The first "rail" was laid by Bassett on 25 October 1809. The line was a wagonway (or plateway) in which cast iron plates of L-shaped cross-section were laid on stone blocks. Wagons with plain wheels ran on the flat of the L and were guided by the upstand; horses pulled the wagons walking between the plates.

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