Wheal Golden was a lead-and-silver mine on the Penhale Point side of Holywell Bay. Nineteenth-century workings cut into a headland that already contained an Iron Age defended settlement. Mining waste, shafts and processing remains became another layer over that much older occupation.
The Geological Conservation Review records substantial lead and silver output in the 1849–55 period. Historic England identifies at least three shafts within the headland’s archaeological landscape and records that the main engine house was demolished during the Second World War.
That is why an empty-looking headland can contain several histories at once: ancient settlement, mining and later military installations. Wheal Golden is distinct from East Wheal Golden and Penhale Mine, although the operations were at times associated. Its caves and workings should not be recast as evidence of smuggling simply because they are underground and near the sea.
Where it is
Wheal Golden
50.387501, -5.153646 · Position source: https://webapps.bgs.ac.uk/memoirs/docs/B01793.html
Historic mine locality from the Geological Survey grid [SW 75920 58935]; not a surveyed shaft or visitor entrance
Visiting and access
A location reference, not confirmation of public access or a visitor entrance.
Sources
Source: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1016991 Source: https://geoguide.scottishgeologytrust.org/p/gcr36/gcr36_perranbeachtoholywellbay Source: https://webapps.bgs.ac.uk/memoirs/docs/B01793.html
Connected subjects
Read on
- From Waterwheel to Railway: The Industrial Landscape Hidden Around Holywell
Behind the beach were people managing water, grinding grain and moving heavy loads. Follow their work through a landscape that kept changing jobs.
- The Railway to Holywell Bay That Never Was
I grew up walking this coast with a surfboard. A Victorian railway and harbour scheme makes me wonder whether I might have caught the train instead—and what would have been waiting when I got there.