Wheal Vlow was a tin mine in the Gear Sands landscape north of Perranporth. It worked the central part of the lode that bears its name; Wheal Widden occupied a western part. The workings became associated with Perran Consols around 1870.
Production and later reworking show that the dune-country mines did not all end in one neat moment before tourism began. Different operations could be active, idle or treating old material at the same time.
The mine entry, the lode and the combined undertaking answer different questions: where people worked, what geological structure they followed and how the business was organised. Linking those identities helps a reader understand the map without needing to become a mining historian first. Wheal Vlow is not a variant spelling of Wheal Leisure in the town.
Where it is
Wheal Vlow, Perran Consols
50.359749, -5.142031 · Position source: https://webapps.bgs.ac.uk/memoirs/docs/B01793.html
Historic mine locality from the Geological Survey grid [SW 76615 55815]; 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://www.mindat.org/loc-216159.html Source: https://webapps.bgs.ac.uk/memoirs/docs/B01793.html
Connected subjects
Read on
- Before the Beach: Perranporth Was a Mining Town
The car-park name remembers a copper mine. A carpenter’s workshop, a chapel commission and changing mineral fortunes help put people back into the town around it.