My CEC work placement that took place with Kerrier District Council at Camborne was really good. The experience for me worked on many levels and I felt that I learned a huge amount. This was not only actual learning but also to do with experiencing the environment.
The office was a mix of people, engineers to project manager, a department manager and of course landscape architects. The whole group worked in unison and there was an interdependency that existed between them, as much as they hated to admit this. Because the council is in flux, lots of the offices have been moved around, and new alliances have been formed amongst colleagues. So the current situation (of about a year) works to the benefit of all, now stepping just a few yards across the office instead of communicating through endless reams of emails.
On my arrival I was met by Cathy Lowe, Landscape Architect. Cathy quickly took me off to the Heartlands Site, where she gave me a guided tour of the surroundings, explaining the way that the land would have looked when the mines were all working.
The Heartlands site is basically centrally located to all of the mines within Camborne. If you do a mine search of the area on the WHS, you will discover that there are as many as 2000 mine shafts within a five mile radius, many of which were left abandoned and forgotten about only to be later discovered by builders, and terrified walkers.
The picture below shows the vast amount of mines shafts located within Cornwall, all of the yellow dots are mine shafts.
The Robinsons shaft area is home to one of the largest mines in Cornwall with a depth of the shafts being an astounding 735 fathoms or 3000m or 2 ½ miles deep (fathom = 5’9’ feet, traditionally a fathom is used as a sea measurement, but here adopted by the miners as the standard length measurement).
Next to the Robinsons Shaft site there is another mine which sits just about a quarter of a mile away, this mine is called South Crofty, this is the only working mine that exists in Cornwall today. All of the seams of tin have been mined over the hundreds of years that Cornwall played host to the largest mining industry in the world, the only reason that South Crofty remains is that the price of tin has risen in recent years, which makes the job of mining the remaining tin a profitable task.
When I went round Camborne with Cathy she drove up to South Crofty Mine and told me to look at the perimeter wall – to better explain, beneath is a quote taken from a blog; ‘The Unbearable Oddness of Stevyn Colgan’ ( accessed on the 24th June 2009) it is a bit of a cheat but this perfectly describes what I saw.
The office was a mix of people, engineers to project manager, a department manager and of course landscape architects. The whole group worked in unison and there was an interdependency that existed between them, as much as they hated to admit this. Because the council is in flux, lots of the offices have been moved around, and new alliances have been formed amongst colleagues. So the current situation (of about a year) works to the benefit of all, now stepping just a few yards across the office instead of communicating through endless reams of emails.
On my arrival I was met by Cathy Lowe, Landscape Architect. Cathy quickly took me off to the Heartlands Site, where she gave me a guided tour of the surroundings, explaining the way that the land would have looked when the mines were all working.
The Heartlands site is basically centrally located to all of the mines within Camborne. If you do a mine search of the area on the WHS, you will discover that there are as many as 2000 mine shafts within a five mile radius, many of which were left abandoned and forgotten about only to be later discovered by builders, and terrified walkers.
The picture below shows the vast amount of mines shafts located within Cornwall, all of the yellow dots are mine shafts.
The Robinsons shaft area is home to one of the largest mines in Cornwall with a depth of the shafts being an astounding 735 fathoms or 3000m or 2 ½ miles deep (fathom = 5’9’ feet, traditionally a fathom is used as a sea measurement, but here adopted by the miners as the standard length measurement).
Next to the Robinsons Shaft site there is another mine which sits just about a quarter of a mile away, this mine is called South Crofty, this is the only working mine that exists in Cornwall today. All of the seams of tin have been mined over the hundreds of years that Cornwall played host to the largest mining industry in the world, the only reason that South Crofty remains is that the price of tin has risen in recent years, which makes the job of mining the remaining tin a profitable task.
When I went round Camborne with Cathy she drove up to South Crofty Mine and told me to look at the perimeter wall – to better explain, beneath is a quote taken from a blog; ‘The Unbearable Oddness of Stevyn Colgan’ ( accessed on the 24th June 2009) it is a bit of a cheat but this perfectly describes what I saw.
"The closure (of South Crofty) was marked by some poignant graffiti. There is a story that the local police caught the daubers just as they were adding the final question mark. The officers read the graffiti, sighed sadly, got back in their car and drove slowly away. And what was written? Two lines from the chorus of Cornish Lads, a modern folk song written by local lad Roger Bryant:
‘Cornish lads are fishermen and Cornish lads are miners too, But
when the fish and tine are gone, what are the Cornish boys to do?’
Crofty has just re-opened for business and, as long as the price of tin remains high, has the potential for another 80 years of production. But such is the fragile nature of the industry that I'm not hopeful, sadly. There will always be cheaper labour elsewhere."
The writing was faint on the wall, just about decernable, but the memory no doubt still is strong. There is so much to take in and so many things to think about, the strong roots of the past clashing with needs of the present.
The Heartlands area spans Redruth Pool and Camborne. Big lottery funding of £22 million was won by ‘CPR Regeneration’, (a partnership of Kerrier District Council and South West Regional Development Agency) using this money CPR aim to change the face the area, by creating a series of multi functional spaces, a ‘new’ meeting area with lakes, sculptures and an outdoor theatre, to name some of the changes planned. Intentionally re-presenting the historical identity of Redruth Pool and Camborne back to the people in a way that brings inspiration for the future.
This image shows the area of Camborne, Redruth and Pool, alongside the proposed plans for the Heartlands project, the new designed area will join the three villages.
