The book looks in detail at a distinctive area and one family over several generations and is the result of over 30 years research. This insight into one small community can stand for others whose records are lost. 65 pages Paperback £16, ISBN 978-1-8384245-4-1 Paperback £25.00 ISBN 978-1-8384245-3-4

The history of the Cornish tin industry since the death of Queen Victoria has often received scant attention and been treated as a mere tailpiece. This is significantly remedied by Roger Burt’s new analysis of this era. 116 pages Hardback £28, Paperback £22.00 ISBN 978-1-8384245-1-0 Paperback £25.00 ISBN 978-1-8384245-3-4

This volume by various hands contains a great deal of new research on the history of Levant from the earliest days to closure in 1930. It also covers the story of the preserved whim engine from its purchase in 1935 to its return to steam. There are many hitherto unseen photographs and considerable insights into the conservation of the mine site over the last 30 years. 338 pages Hardback £25 ISBN 978-0-9935021-7-0 Paperback £15, ISBN 978-0-9935021-8-7

William Woolcock was working at Devon Great Consols during its years of decline. The great days of copper mining were over and the mine survived largely on sales of arsenic. He was also involved in the search for tin at depth which consumed so much time and effort to no avail. Documents such as his are rare and give valuable insight into the mine’s story. The compilers, each well versed in Tamar Valley mining, provide a detailed commentary on Woolcock’s text. 68 pages Paperback £11, ISBN 978-0- 9935021-6-3

This story of a relatively unsuccessful mine, known mainly, if at all, for the dramatic siting of its engine houses, brings together the research of two authors and is published as a tribute to the late Alasdair Neill. It covers the history and archaeology of the mine and the conservation of the engine houses by the National Trust in 2008/9. 94 pages Paperback £10, ISBN 978- 0-9935021-5-6

This is the first history of the Tavistock Canal published to mark the bicentenary of its opening. The book covers the canal’s construction and operational history and includes a unique collection of detailed measured drawings recording lost and surviving structures. The canal is put into the context of the surrounding area with detailed treatment of the mines, quarries, tramways, quays and ports whose story is intertwined with that of the waterway. 538 pages, Paperback £30, ISBN 978-0-9935021-4-9

The published history of mine pumping in Cornwall is extensive but largely concentrates on the use of steam in the nineteenth century; the pioneers of the eighteenth century have received less attention. It is to this period that Rick Stewart has turned his attention. The book opens with a discussion of adit drainage and then the Coster family of Bristol and their water engines. The story of Newcomen engines in Cornwall from the 1710s then gives way to that of Boulton & Watt and their often acrimonious relationship with Cornish adventurers. Finally we read of Jonathan Hornblower and Edward Bull who challenged Watt’s restrictive patent. Appendices list the numerous engineers who erected engines in this early period. 176 pages Paperback £17.50, ISBN 978-0-9935021-2-5

Diane Hodnett has written the first history of this quintessential Cornish industry which spread worldwide. She tells the story of William Bick ford, inventor of the safety fuse and the epic tale of the company he founded which as Bickford Smith was a major employer in the Camborne area and had branches in countries wherever mining was significant. She tells of its assimilation into ICI and ends with the closure of the Tuckingmill factory in 1961. On the expiry of Bickford’s patent, a whole gallery of eager entrepreneurs entered the market and a rash of factories sprang up, mainly in West Cornwall; the book covers their history too. The human story of the workers and some of the dreadful accidents in the industry also has its place. Diane was the first person given access to the Bickford Smith family archive and so much new information is here published for the first time. She has also found a magnificent series of 1924 aerial photographs of the Roskear and Tuckingmill areas at English Heritage and these grace the pages of Cornwall’s Fuse Works. 238 pages Paperback £12 ISBN 978-0-9935021-1- 8

Throughout much of the nineteenth century Great Wheal Vor epitomised the fortunes which could be made from Cornwall’s vast mineral wealth. Working almost continuously between 1810 and 1877, this fabulously rich mine kept going during periods of low tin prices which led to the failure of many lesser mines. Wheal Vor is also reputed to be the first Cornish mine to install a Newcomen steam pumping engine. It later became one of the leading mines in Cornwall’s industrial heyday with beam engines which outperformed their contemporaries. One of only three Cornish mines to have its own smelting works it produced up to a quarter of Cornwall’s tin from a main lode of unparalleled richness. Everything about Wheal Vor was on the grand scale. The 1850s saw an attempt to pump out and rework the mine using the “Great 100-inch Engine”, the largest ever installed in Cornwall. This venture incurred the largest ever loss in a single attempt to reopen a mine. Two further attempts at revival in the twentieth century proved equally fruitless. The story of Great Wheal Vor is one of the most important and vibrant in Cornwall’s mining history, which, perhaps because so little remains on the ground, has not hitherto received due notice. This comprehensive history by Tony Bennett puts Wheal Vor in its rightful place among the county’s mines. Perhaps too the Great Wheal Vor story is not over yet. 603 pages Hardback £40, ISBN 978- 0- 9575660-6-4 Paperback £20.00 ISBN 978-0-9575660-7-1

The mines south of Carn Brea have never received the same level of attention as those to the north. Leading mining historian Allen Buckley now turns his attention to a hitherto neglected area of the Great Flat Lode with this most welcome study of the Basset Mines. Beginning with fascinating insights into the early days of mining around Carnkie, the story runs on to a full treatment of the boom years of the nineteenth century and concludes with the story of Basset Mines Ltd., one of the largest mining companies ever to work in Cornwall Their valiant struggle for survival in an increasingly hostile environment finally came to an end in 1918. The reader will also learn something of the great variety of Cornish engines in the mine and the book includes a gazetteer of what remains on the ground for those who would like to visit what remains on one of the most diverse and interesting of Cornish mining sites. 192 pages Paperback £10, ISBN 978-0-9575660-4-0

The engineers who first developed the Cornish Engine, such as Richard Trevithick and Arthur Woolf, are comparatively well known and have been the subject of modern studies and biographies. William West (1805-1879) was a leading member of the next generation of engineers who brought the performance of the Cornish Engine to its peak and saw its use extended world- wide and into such areas as water and sewage works. The book covers episodes in West’s long and distinguished career such as the famous 1835 trial of Austen’s Engine at Fowey Consols and the pioneering installation of a sister engine at a London waterworks. Until now the only life of West was a short hagiographical Sketch published immediately after his death. John Manley’s new biography reprints the Sketch and includes a commentary based on modern research. As well as his engineering practice, West was the owner of the St Blazey Foundry, a mine adventurer, contractor, railway builder and banker. A towering presence in East Cornwall, William West now has a worthy modern biography. 196 pages Paperback £14.99, ISBN 978-0-9575660-2-6

There are few more striking and recognisable Cornish engine houses than that situated on the Greenburrow Shaft of Ding Dong Mine. It is visible throughout West Penwith on its lofty moorland perch. In contrast the story of the ancient mine itself is relatively unknown. Now two authors, well known historians of the mines of the far west, having researched Ding Dong over some years have done its story full justice. We read that mining in the area began with small stream works in the seventeenth century and Ding Dong itself is mentioned as early as 1751. In the 1790s the mine was in the forefront of the battles between Richard Trevithick and Boulton & Watt. The mine remained a significant producer throughout the nineteenth century up to closure in 1877. In its final twenty years of operation it produced almost 3,000 tons of black tin at a value of £155,000. Ding Dong now has a full modern history as part of the Trevithick Society’s mission to extend our knowledge of hitherto neglected mines and industries in Cornwall. 218 pages Paperback £15.99, 978-0-9575660-3-3

Levant is one of the great Cornish mines. Its long history, rugged location on Atlantic cliffs and its undersea workings give its history a very special quality. John Corin’s history, Levant: A Champion Cornish Mine, was first published in 1992; it went through a number of revisions and new editions, staying in print continuously to 2010. It appeared at just the right time. A number of volunteers were beginning to see how the site at Levant could be made more accessible and interesting to visitors and so successive editions covered visual restoration of the surviving beam engine, the new boiler house and the engine’s return to steam. More recently the combined efforts of the National Trust and Trevithick Society have resulted in a greater appreciation of the site as a whole and the emergence of new information. The time was ripe for a completely new edition with new colour photographs and a self-guided walk. This new edition has proved immensely popular, serving as guidebook and accessible history. 128 pages £10.99, 978-0-904040-96-8

Through the long history of Cornish mining mineral extraction has taken place in some remarkable locations but none was more peculiar than the Wherry Mine at Penzance. The mine’s shafts were located some 200 yards offshore in Mount’s Bay and linked by a timber trestle to the machinery on dry land. In consequence the Wherry Mine bore more resemblance to a seaside pier than a working mine. The unique nature of the mine workings meant that contemporary travellers noted and visited Wherry Mine and some recorded their impressions. The mine worked sporadically during the 18th century but closed around 1800; attempts at reworking in the 19th century came to very little. Peter Joseph, in this small booklet, has done well to ferret out the story of this extraordinary venture. Incredibly prospecting of the Wherry lodes, using a similar pier and drilling rig, took place as recently as 1967. Paperback 44 pages £4.99, 978-0-904040-95-1

Many visited the mines of Cornwall in the nineteenth century and a number recorded their impressions. The majority, it is fair to say, took an academic or amateur interest in what they saw. Visitors who described the processes they saw with a professional or technical knowledge were far less common. One such was Leon Moissenet, who at the time of his visit was still a student at the Ecole des Mines in France. His Excursion in Cornwall was published in 1858 when he was 27 years old and was an immensely detailed description of contemporary mineral dressing in Cornwall. His text never appeared in English until Tony Clarke, himself a mineral processing specialist, came upon it and set about making a translation. This duly appeared in 2010 and is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand mechanical dressing of ores in the great days of Cornish mining. 173 pages Hardback £10