Banns is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

in west

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, England, United Kingdom situated between

Mount Hawke Mount Hawke is a village in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated approximately west-northwest of Truro, north-northeast of Redruth, and south of St Agnes. The village is in a former mining area in the administrative civil parish of St A ...

and

Porthtowan Porthtowan (, meaning ''landing place at the sand dunes'') is a small village in Cornwall, England, UK, which is a popular summer tourist destination. Porthtowan is on Cornwall's north Atlantic coast about southwest of St Agnes, north of Red ...

Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 203 ''Land's End'' at in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

of St Agnes.''Porthtowan, Banns Vale, Mount Hawke and Chapel Porth.''
St Agnes Forum. p. 2. Retrieved 25 September 2012. The

South West Coast Path The South West Coast Path is England's longest waymarked Long-distance footpaths in the UK, long-distance footpath and a National Trail. It stretches for , running from Minehead in Somerset, along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, to Poole Harb ...

is to the west of the hamlet. Banns is included in the Mount Hawke and Portreath division of

Cornwall Council Cornwall Council ( ), known between 1889 and 2009 as Cornwall County Council (), is the local authority which governs the non-metropolitan county of Cornwall in South West England. Since 2009 it has been a Unitary authorities of England, unitary ...

. There is another place called Banns in the civil parish of

St Buryan St Buryan () is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of St Buryan, Lamorna and Paul in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. In 2011 the parish had a population of 1412. The village of St Buryan is situated approximately west of ...

Description

There are three principal features that define the Banns area: the vale or

hollow Hollow may refer to: Natural phenomena *Hollow, a low, wooded area, such as a copse * Hollow (landform), a small vee-shaped, riverine type of valley *Tree hollow, a void in a branch or trunk, which may provide habitat for animals Arts, entertai ...

, a mine and a farm, named Banns Farm. Cottages at Bannsvale Farm in Prince Royal Meadows are holiday rentals.''Contact - map (Prince Royal Meadows / Banns location).''
Bannsvale Farm Cottages. Retrieved 25 September 2012. In 1880, there was also a place named Lower Banns near Banns in St Agnes. It was a 13-acre property owned by Francis Harris in 1873. The Banns area includes a meadow named Prince Royal Meadows.

Mining

Banns, which means hollow, is inland from Porthtowan and is surrounded by mines, such as Wheal Coates and Tywarnhayle Mine. There was a small abandoned copper mine named Wheal Banns. The mine was also called the Prince Royal Mine. The mining area was described in 1828 as follows: "Crossing Prince's Common, a most desolate scene meets the eye; the surface is covered with small fragments of red decomposing

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

, largely intermixed with pieces of

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

; the uniformity of this desert (which extends for many miles to the right and left) is only broken by the numerous heaps of rubbish, the remains of former

mining operations Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

. The fragments of rocks, thus exposed are of a bright red; and are derived from a slate similar to that which succeeds the

felspar Feldspar ( ; sometimes spelled felspar) is a group of rock-forming Aluminosilicate, aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are ...

-rocks north of Cardrew." By 1843 there was £10,000 invested in the mine improvements with a new company. In 1877 Prince Royal Mine, a tin mine, was owned by L. Walsad and a person with the surname of Duignan. It was located in Scorrier, St Agnes. In 1881 the mine, now called Wheal Banns, produced and sold a little bit more than a ton of tin, which required a payment of dues to the Duke of Cornwall.Robert Hunt.
Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain and of the Museum of Practical Geology
'. 1882 ited 25 September 2012 p. 8.

References

{{Cornwall, state=collapsed Hamlets in Cornwall