It seemed like a mistake to ask to visit Camborne, admittedly. It's a suburban town that on the surface isn't all too remarkable, and I only wanted to see it from its association with the large data set from maths. In fairness it was only going to be a brief stopover, and then we'd make our way towards Portishead, so I got to see the high street. It's like every other high street, except the Costa's in a more interesting building than they usually are, so I won't waste my time talking about it.
There is a notable aspect about Camborne, and it happens to be about something I often mention anyways - the railways. Local comedian Jethro joked about how trains wouldn't stop at Camborne on Wednesdays, indeed this is the only thing I knew about Camborne beforehand. Ironically though Camborne was where a steam locomotive was built by Richard Trevithick. He called it the Puffin' Devil and moved six people on Christmas Eve in 1801 up a hill in Camborne - the first such successful journey. It may have broken down a few days later, but nonetheless a folk song, Camborne Hill, wrote it into history.
Camborne was also the site of tin and copper mining, with countless mines scattered across the area and adjacent towns like Redruth. Boiler works and foundries, amongst other industries, sprouted in the 19th century, but changes in price meant the mines slowly began to close down - what once saw thousands of tonnes of tin and copper was gone completely by 1999.
One such region was the copper-rich Great Flat Lode, which saw its mines close completely by 1920. The mines here produced 90,000 tons of tin, and one such example is South Wheal Frances, of which this stone structure is the Marriot's Shaft.
They mined here since 1720 at least, initially for tin but transitioning to copper once they found the Lode in 1886. It eventually merged with nearby mines to form Basset Mines, which itself closed by 1918. Now it's a tourist attraction which you can walk around, completely oblivious that this was a former industrial centre. There's more of South Wheal Frances nearby, but owing to time constraints, we moved on to further structures.
You may wonder who Basset was; that's a family - Francis Basset was a politician who helped defend Cornwall from French and Spanish fleets. He has a monument named for him, a tower overlooking Redruth, a fair distance from the Basset mines; his daughter, Frances Basset, is the namesake for South Wheal.
There's also a granite castle near the monument - Carn Brea Castle, which was built in 1379. In 1790 the Basset family controlled it, intending it to be a hunting lodge, though in later years it's been used as a beacon and more recently as a restaurant. The views surrounding it are ones to marvel, to say the least. Out in the distance, like a needle, is a transmission tower, whilst Redruth and nearby areas come off as a cluster of houses. Yet there wasn't all that much time, as we had other places to visit.
There is another structure worth noting, that being Carwynnen Quoit, which is nowhere near the mining district, it being directly south of Camborne. It's four rocks arranged as a shelter, and is about 5000 years old. It's collapsed a few times but has since been restored, as the information plaque describes with far too many verbs. It's in the middle of a field, and we had the landmark to ourselves, aside for a woman passing through with a dog. There's nothing else to add, really.
And that concludes my blogposts on Cornwall. I didn't write about everything, but considering the holiday was nearly a month ago, I think it's better I leave it in the past.
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