KING EDWARD MINE, TROON, CAMBORNE, TR14 6BW FRIDAY EVENING TALKS

Subject to alteration if necessary. All talks expected on Zoom where possible, a link will be sent prior to talks to all members where we hold an email address

September 11th

Tony Langford

Walking with John Harris: Landscape of a Poet. Exploring the landscape of John Harris, his childhood inspiration of Treslothan Moors and Woods. The impact of 19th century Cornish mining and the Cornish Miners walks to Dolcoath Mine. Comparisons with the Enclosures poet John Clare and the legacy of John Harris’s Poetry to revive the Cornish Spirit in the face of the new wave of 21st century technology.

October 9th

George Howe

Mining the Future: Geothermal and Hard Rock Lithium in Cornwall.  Cornwall has a long and proud history of supplying the minerals that powered industrial change. Today, lithium is emerging as a strategic resource for electric vehicles, battery storage, and the global energy transition. This talk explores how Cornwall is at the forefront of a new mining era, examining both geothermal lithium extraction from deep geothermal waters and hard rock lithium production from granite-hosted deposits. Attendees will gain an insight into the technologies, projects, opportunities, and challenges involved in developing a sustainable lithium industry in Cornwall, and what it could mean for the region’s economic future.

November 13th

Sally Foster

My Grandfather, Captain Cornish Millett’s,  tin prospecting ventures in Northern Nigeria from 1911 to 1914.

November 13th

David Thomas

Portreath by Postcard c1900-1960.

ZOOM-ONLY TALKS ON MONDAYS at 19.30, MEMBERS ONLY

September 7th

Tim Smith

An Irish immigrant to USA who was sent to South Wales by his employers in 1828 to learn the secrets of the industry.  While there is no direct reference to Cornwall, the tin used in South Wales would have been Cornish Tin and of course there was active trade between Cornwall and S Wales in coal, tin and copper ore.  Also, Richard Trevithick ran his first rail locomotive at Penydarrren (near Merthyr Tidfil) in 1804 – just 24 years before Patterson’s visit who incidentally refers to the switch of waggon wheels from unflanged to flanged as they moved from cast iron plate rails (which Trevithick’s loco broke) to wrought iron bull head rails more typical of today.

October 12th

Duncan Murdoch

St Michael’s Mount – Mesolithic to Modern. Towards the end of the last major glaciation, St Michael’s Mount would have been surrounded by forest, yet even then it seems to have been a focal point for human activity, much as it is today. Recent archaeological digs have shed new light on what was happening on the Mount during this period and into the Bronze Age.  I’ll trace the island’s connection to St Michael, why a monastery was built at its summit, and its 400 years as a priory up to the dissolution of the monasteries. From there I’ll follow its transformation from monastery into fortified castle, and the turbulent century that followed, including the Civil War between Royalists and Parliamentarians.

I’ll then cover the 370 years of St Aubyn family ownership, the 1954 agreement with the National Trust, and how the island operates today as a business, including the everyday complexities of modern island life, which I experienced first-hand living there with my family for five and a half years, before moving off a year and a half ago to take up the role of Head of Operations.

November 9th

Warren Allison

Force Crag Mine.  Force Crag Mine near Keswick in the Lake District was its last working metal mine with the New Coledale Mining Company making a valiant attempt to work the mine between 1984 and 1991 and on its closure brought to an end over 1,000 years of proven mining. The Cumbria Amenity Trust Mining History Society (CATMHS) members helped the company including the speaker so some of the talk is from a personnel point of view.

December 14th

Gareth Parry

Tin and copper primed the global electronic industry.  How semiconductors are fueling growth in the stock markets.  What are they?  Do you know how many semiconductor devices you use every day, every hour, every time you touch your key-board?’