Prosperity and the Perils of Romanticising Mining History.
Karin & Chris Easton
Perranporth, on the north coast of Cornwall in the south west of England, has grown to become the largest village in the parish of Perranzabuloe due to the influence of tourism since the late 1800s.
Although there is evidence of widespread mining in the area prior to this, substantial mining in Perranporth ceased early as a result of a legal dispute between the two main mines over the boundary for underground mining rites. Local entrepreneurs, in an effort to revive the area and attract holiday makers, destroyed much of the evidence of mining, with its engine houses and chimneys. During the Second World War, Cligga Head was worked for tungsten and tin, but further mining evidence was destroyed as possible landmarks for invading German forces. So, during the twentieth century the area became known less for mining and increasingly as a desirable holiday destination.
Despite the early cessation of mining and loss of its infrastructure, local place names still provide many clues to Perranporth’s mining past. Names such as Wheal Leisure and St George, the two previously-mentioned mines involved in the legal dispute, are now the names of roads, housing, a hotel and a carpark, the carpark being on part of the site of Wheal Leisure. Author Winston Graham, who lived in Perranporth, used the name Wheal Leisure for a mine in his popular Poldark stories. Local pride in Perranporth’s mining past has resulted in more recent developments using local mining nomenclature such as a new social housing development called Wheal Catherine Close.
Individual house names can also tell us about Perranporth’s mining past when the successful returning miners called their houses after the names where they had been working abroad, names such as Massiac (in France), Bel Fiori (in Italy), Kimberley and Virginia House, all evidence of the Cornish diaspora. Perhaps this is some of the reason for the romanticising of Perranporth’s mining past as it shows financial success as well as a sense of adventure and the exotic. Oral history from a local family tells of a family member returning with a parrot, and in its collection Perranzabuloe Museum has an elephant’s tooth, found in an attic.
This presents us with the paradox of romanticising the mining past without realising that there is still evidence of mining in the cliffs. What visitors and even some residents take to be sea caves are almost all mine workings. This resulted in the unfortunate death of an eight-year-old girl when her father thought they were going to explore a natural cave. Beach users, despite warning signs, seem to remain unaware of the instability of the cliffs resulting from mining, not just natural erosion.
Perranzabuloe Museum and the University of Exeter set up a working group to investigate how much beach users understood the mining heritage of Perranporth and whether the cliffs were natural or “man-made”. The results of the survey showed that most people had no realisation that the “natural” arches and caves were the result of mining. Arising from this collaboration was the Heritage on the Beach project to inform beach users about Perranporth’s mining heritage in the cliffscape by taking the museum on to the beach.
While there has been no mining in the parish since the early twentieth century, with the exception of short-term mining at Cligga Head, the impact of mining is still felt within Perranporth both bad and good, the bad being the dangerous caves and erosion of the cliffs and the good being the romantic view of mining and its benefit to tourism and to local identity.
Of Earth For Earth (2020)
KARIN EASTON
Karin Easton served as Honorary Secretary for Perranzabuloe Museum in Perranporth and still serves as a volunteer on the Museum Management Committee. Since retirement as Deputy Head of a Cornish primary school, she obtained an MA in Cornish Studies with the Institute of Cornish Studies, University of Exeter. She is currently President of the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies of which there are over 40 across Cornwall.
CHRIS EASTON
Christopher Easton was a founder member and is a Trustee of Perranzabuloe Museum in Perranporth and has been Chairman of the Management Committee. He is President of Perranzabuloe Old Cornwall Society. As a keen beachcomber he is proud of his collection of sea beans and transatlantic flotsam. The latest edition of A Flora of Cornwall mentions some of his rarer finds of disseminules or sea beans. He produces artwork from the plastic he finds on Perranporth beach. Some of his public art highlights the message of plastic pollution.