Wheal Kitty

Wheal Kitty
© Copyright Martin Bodman and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

Wheal Kitty worked rich tin veins, occurring in the granite, which were very profitable on the west side of Trevellas Coombe; the same veins were exploited by mines on the east side.

The west Wheal Kitty mines include around 30 older setts, which included Wheal Rock, Wheal Kind and New Wheal Kitty.

Sara’s shaft engine house, shown on the photograph, once housed 65-inch beam engine constructed by the Perran Foundry as a 60-inch in 1852 and installed here in 1910, which was second-hand from a mine near St Hilary.

The shafts at Wheal Kitty Mine reach a depth of 180 fathoms (1080 feet) below the adit and employed 160 men, rising to 220 in 1914. The mine closed in 1930.