Calstock Consols (Wheal Calstock; Calstock & Danescombe Consols; Danescombe Valley Mine; Tamar Consolidated Mine), Calstock, Cornwall, England, UKi

Regional Level Types
Calstock Consols (Wheal Calstock; Calstock & Danescombe Consols; Danescombe Valley Mine; Tamar Consolidated Mine)	Mine (Abandoned)
Calstock	Civil Parish
Cornwall	County
England	Constituent Country
UK	Country

Worked as Wheal Calstock prior to 1850. Ceased working by 1868. Reworked in the 1880s as Calstock & Danescombe Consols and Danescombe Valley Mine.

Calstock and Danescombe mine was prospected again in 1915 without further action and the site has now been restored by the landmark trust.
Ref: Richardson P.H.G. (1991) Mines of Dartmoor & the Taymar Valley after 1913, Devon Books, Tiverton.

As of March 2024 at Calstock Consols one of the chimneys is in good order and is flanked by a relatively new dwelling. The area in the elbow of the road which was presumably once a tip has now been entirely cleared and is currently being built on. The grid ref SX426696) is for the chimney mentioned here.

Danescombe Mine (SX422693 grid ref for the restored engine house) is an extensive sett primarily on the western hillside of the valley.
Beside the river is the restored engine house and from part of the associated buildings (the boiler house?) an open flue leads to the nearby chimney. Beside the engine house an open level enters the western hillside. Further down the river are buildings on either side of the river. To the west is a chimney and this is presumed to be the site of Engine Shaft mentioned by Dines as on the eastern side of the river is an open level in the garden of a house called 'Mispickle' with a short section of rail and an ore truck and a corresponding entrance on the western side. This fits with the description in Dines that the lode crossed the valley and was worked on both sides though this is also the location given in MinDat for Cotehele Consols.
Still further down the river is a ruined building containing a pool of water that could be a shaft but may only be a shallow pit and this was possibly an ore dressing room.

Dines notes that Consolidated Tamar Mine (SX421694 grid ref for the shaft mentioned below) worked a patch of ground to the north of Danescombe Mine. The 2 levels in the hillside that worked "north dipping No3 Lode" mentioned by Dines are one above the other directly up the slope from the chimney beside the engine house mentioned above. The upper level is gated, the lower is collapsed but there is an outflow of ocherous water. A footpath angles up the hillside between the levels. From that footpath a little above the levels another path branches sharply northward and following this path, at the place where it turns in to a wider track, is a the collar of Whim Shaft on "south dipping No4 Lode" and small tip. The toe of the tip has been retained by a rough wall but where a tree has toppled the wall has been brought down and the exposed tip material offers abundant arsenopyrite and pyrite.

Collom's Shaft (SX426693), aka New Shaft ( stands in the middle of an open field on the hilltop. The shaft is walled and overgrown. The tip beside it is comprised of soft, flaky, grey shale with occasional samples of arsenopyrite and pyrite. In Dines Collom's Shaft is however linked to Calstock Consols whilst at the same time Collom's Section below ground is linked to Danescombe Mine.

Geochronology

Geologic Time				Rocks, Minerals and Events
Phanerozoic
	Paleozoic
		Permian
			Guadalupian	ⓘ Major polymetallic mineralization ~270 Ma Cornwall, England, UK
			Cisuralian	ⓘ Porphyry dikes intruded (latest age) ~275 Ma Cornwall, England, UK ⓘ Greisenization (latest age) ~280 Ma Cornwall, England, UK ⓘ Porphyry dikes intruded (earliest age) ~280 Ma Cornwall, England, UK ⓘ Formation of metallized pegmatites ~285 Ma Cornwall, England, UK ⓘ Greisenization (earliest age) ~285 Ma Cornwall, England, UK ⓘ Emplacement of major plutons ~295 Ma Cornwall, England, UK

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality