Day 6 - Geevor Mine and St. Ives

This morning Grandma told us her legs were feeling wobbly after yesterday’s hike in and out of Port Isaac and she preferred to stay back at the lodge today.  Mom and I were disappointed not to have her with us, but we wanted to press on to see more exciting things!  We had a breakfast of cereal, rolls, and yogurt in our lodge before heading out.

Mom and I enjoying breakfast on the patio, taken by Grandma

It was another glorious day for weather, so I suggested we go to St. Ives which is known for it’s beautiful coast and harbor.  The question was what else to see.  I had researched a place called Geevor Mine which looked interesting and Mom thought it would be, too, so we set out for it first as it was on the way to St. Ives.

Once we arrived at the mine,

Entrance to Geevor mine with the sea in the background beyond the buildings

we paid our entrance fee, put on the mandatory hard hats,

Mom in her hardhat, not thrilled with how she looks

Me in my hardhat... not too concerned with how goofy I look, taken by Mom

and started through the exhibits about the mine.  It was fascinating to see how old it is and how extensive the tunnels are.

Fascinating model illustrating all the shafts of the Geevor Mine represented by each of those little lines, taken by Mom

The blue line you see one the side on the glass represents sea level, so most of the mine is below it

They say people have been mining first copper, then tin in the area for around 400 years, but the sources I read said that the main mining started in the 19th century.  The mine closed in the 1980's when the tin market crashed and the demand was not enough to make a profit.  We were able to tour the buildings that have been preserved and see the old equipment and read or hear audio recordings of how they worked.

In the winding room looking at the equipment the wound the cables bringing men and tools up from the mine

The exhibit that had a lot of history of the mine and movie about the same

These machines started to process the raw tin

There was also a film to take us through the history.  This reminded me a lot of “Poldark” which was originally a set of novels about a man from Cornwall who got into tin mining in the late 18th century and then made into a TV series by the BBC in the 1970's.

I’ve seen most of it and many of the issues with the mine in the story were discussed at Geevor.  After we had looked around and seen all the exhibits, we walked down to take a tour underground.  I thought they were going to put us in cages and lower us deep into the earth.  But instead we walked into a section of an older mine as Geevor is too flooded to tour (after all, most of it is below sea level).  Our guide was Janet and she explained a lot of the history and geology of the mine, showing us some of the older tools used and explaining how the technology advanced to more and more modern techniques for mining.

Janet leads us into the mine

Entering the mine, taken by Mom

It was very interesting.  Inside the mine it was quite dark, cold, damp, and very low ceilinged.  It was built back over a hundred years ago when the mining men averaged 5 feet tall and had an average life span of 24-27 years (depending on the source)!  We had to bend over to get through the passages and we could hear each other’s hard hats hitting the ceiling as we went along.

Don't hit your head, Liesel!  Taken by Mom

After leaving the underground portion, we got a bit more history from Janet, and then headed back towards the gift shop.  We were pretty hungry by now, so we got a vegetable pasty and creamed tea (Scone, jam, and Cornish clotted cream, and tea) there and shared.

Enjoying our creamed tea and pasty, taken by Mom

The pasty was a bit strange with corn in it, but it didn’t taste bad.  We later heard that vegetable pasties were the original and most common kind back a couple of hundred years ago because the mining families who made them couldn’t afford meat.  The miners carried them with them to work.  It was a convenient food as it contained a complete meal all wrapped up in a pastry.  The crimped edge was used as a handle to hold it by and then thrown away so that the arsenic on their hands that had transferred to the edge of the pasty wouldn’t be ingested.  Pretty smart!

Then we drove on to St. Ives.

On the way we saw a place to pull over and take pictures of the town from a distance.

First view of St. Ives which you see just above the road in the distance

It was hard to find a place to park there.  More narrow streets overridden with tourists.  Nerve-racking to drive through.  We paid for an hour of parking and then headed toward the harbor which is supposed to be the most beautiful part of the city.

Typical street in St. Ives

Another small street, not fit for cars!  Taken by Mom

The beautiful harbor, taken by Mom

Sea bathers enjoying the sun on the beach, taken by Mom

Look how clear and blue the water is!  In the distance is the old ship

Mom’s knee was hurting pretty bad so we couldn’t go far.  We did see a lot of the harbor before heading back. There was a beautiful old ship out in the bay.  We also go a lot of photos of the beautiful beaches and the very blue water.

Old ship out in the bay, taken by Mom

Then it was back to the car and head back to Camborne.

Grandma was waiting for us there.  She didn’t eat very much in our absence and we were getting hungry as well, so we quickly heated up our dinner and enjoyed eating in!

Home cooked dinner, taken by Mom

After that Mom and I headed up to the bar area where the free wifi is accessible.  That night, an Irish band came to play for entertainment and we enjoyed hearing their lively music with Celtic instruments from where we were sitting!