The Caradon Area of Bodmin Moor has a fascinating history. People lived here in the time of Christ. There is good reason to suppose that they were mining tin and copper here as the actual ore was once exposed on the surface for anyone to pick up. The countless pits in a line across the moor show where various people at various times in history have tried their luck with a pick and shovel.

However it was not until the great mining boom of the 1850’s that Caradon really came into its own. A mine engineer called Clymo came up from the main mining area of Camborne where he had been a mine Captain and started prospecting around the base of Caradon Hill.Eventually, just as the money was running out, they discovered tin and copper ore and the Great Caradon Boom began. The whole area in this picture was covered in mine workings, chimneys, engine houses and a veritable shanty town housing thousands of people who came to work in the mines.

Long before there were towns in Cornwall people lived on the hilltops. Although there is little to see these days there is the remains of a hilltop fort on Stowes Hill right by a famous rock formation known as The Cheesewring. The stones would have been there in those days and in fact in medieval times it was said that the top stone was so finely balanced that it could be turned with a long pole.

The high grey cliffs are of the granite quarry from where much of London’s monumental stone was taken. You can see the waste dumps in the picture above too, these are granite workings, not mines. The granite was hewn into great rough blocks and sent to Liskeard by train. It was then transferred to barges, taken to Looe and shipped to Londomng. Later the railway went all the way out on to the quayside at Looe and both granite and ore were loaded on to ships here.