Wheal Vor
| Location | |
|---|---|
| Location | Breage |
| County | Cornwall |
| Country | UK |
| Coordinates | 50°07′04″N 5°19′36″W / 50.1179°N 5.3266°WCoordinates: 50°07′04″N 5°19′36″W / 50.1179°N 5.3266°W |
| Production | |
| Products | Copper and Tin |
| History | |
| Opened | 15th-century |
| Closed | c.1910 |
Wheal Vor was a mine about 2 miles (3.2 km) north west of Helston and 1 mile (1.6 km) north of the village of Breage in the west of Cornwall, England, UK. It is considered to be part of the Mount's Bay mining district. Until the mid 19th-century the mine was notable for its willingness to try out new innovations. Although very rich in copper and tin ores, the mine never lived up to its expectations: during the later part of the 19th-century it had several periods of closure, and an attempt to reopen it in the 1960s was not successful mainly because of bureaucracy. Today the site is part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape.
The country rock at the mine is killas, mostly hard, blue-grey rock. The mine's main produce was copper and tin derived from the nearby Tregonning-Godolphin granite, part of the Cornubian batholith. There were four main lodes at the mine, two of which were crossed by two wide elvan dykes, 20 and 48 ft (6.1 and 14.6 m) wide. At the intersections the lodes widened and mineralization spread through the dykes, forming irregular masses which were stoped to the full width of the dykes.
Wheal Vor is an ancient mine: the ground shows the remains of old surface excavations following the lodes, and mining may have taken place here in late Roman times. The underground mine probably started in the 15th-century and continued until 1715 producing mainly copper ore. The mine was associated with the Godolphin family who were keen on trying out recent innovations, and through their connections it may have been the first mine in Cornwall to make use of gunpowder, at the close of the 17th-century.
Shortly after 1700 the mine may have been one of the few sites to trial Thomas Savery's pump, which was, according to his patent application, "A new invention for raiseing of water … by the impellent force of fire, which will be of great use and advantage for drayning mines…". It is not certain whether Savery's experiments took place at Wheal Vor or at another nearby mine, but it is known that c. 1710 a Newcomen engine had been installed here, which was probably the first in Cornwall.
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