IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Wheal Henry, TRURO, TR4 8SW

The only road up this valley is an unmetalled track.

A road bridge over the disused railway line that looks like it served the Wheal Maiden Mine near the village of Crofthandy. It is now a footpath and Cycle Track that is popular with walkers and cyclists travelling up from the Bissoe direction. There are frequent signs of the old railway by the granite blocks to which the rails were fastened.

A small pool, at a lower level than the mail tailings lagoon, which is behind the dam to the right. The water really is that colour, due to the minerals traces left in the mining spoil.

This valley was covered in mines in the 19th Century. Now most of the buildings have gone and these conical mesh covers are commonly used to cap the shafts. They give bats access to underground roosting areas.

This is part of a tramway which ran down the western side of the Poldice Valley.

Looking towards Cross Lanes.

This is a wonderful location, just west of the tunnels which carry the by-way and river beneath the Chacewater branch of the railway as it crosses the valley. The river, which is in a culvert, emerges into fresh air after passing beneath the tailings lagoons, and the lowest lagoon (dry in this image) is used to regulate water which collects and passes through the upper lagoons. The water which fills this lagoon is loaded with the acidic, iron-rich water which results from the oxidation of sulphide ores. The result is precipitation of iron hydroxides, or ochre, which also carry a toxic mixture of other metals and arsenic from the residual ores in the lagoons. Ochre works were just one of the industries that populated the valley in its mining heyday.

This well-maintained track is a by-way leading from Twelveheads to the Poldice Valley, and not part of the National Cycle Route 3, though it does run parallel at this point.