Chyandour
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Chyandour (, meaning "house of the water") is a small
settlement Settlement may refer to: *Human settlement, a community where people live *Settlement (structural), downward movement of a structure's foundation *Settlement (finance), where securities are delivered against payment of money *Settlement (litigatio ...
within the town of
Penzance Penzance ( ; ) is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is the westernmost major town in Cornwall and is about west-southwest of Plymouth and west-southwest of London. Situated in 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, ...
, United Kingdom. It is on the north-east edge of the town straddling the A30 trunk road. The Chyandour Brook rises near
Carfury Carfury is a hamlet in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated in Penwith approximately three miles (5 km) northwest of Penzance. It is in the civil parish of Madron The 19th-century geologist Elizabeth Carne founded a scho ...
and flows into
Mount's Bay Mount's Bay () is a bay on the English Channel coast of Cornwall, England, stretching from the Lizard Point, Cornwall, Lizard Point to Gwennap Head. In the north of the bay, near Marazion, is St Michael's Mount; the origin of name of the bay. ...
at Chyandour. Before 1934 Chyandour was in the
parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...
of
Madron Madron ( (village) or (parish)) is a civil parishes in England, civil parish and village in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Madron is named after Saint Madern's Church. Its annual Trafalgar Service commemorating the death of Horatio ...
and was the site of a large tin smelting works.


Industry

In around 1660 John Tremenheere, in anticipation of Penzance becoming a
Stannary town A stannary was an administrative division established under stannary law in the English counties of Cornwall and Devon to manage the collection of tin coinage, which was the duty payable on the metal tin smelted from cassiterite ore mined in t ...
, set up a
smelting Smelting is a process of applying heat and a chemical reducing agent to an ore to extract a desired base metal product. It is a form of extractive metallurgy that is used to obtain many metals such as iron-making, iron, copper extraction, copper ...
works, just outside the Borough of Penzance's boundary at Chyandour. In 1760 when Thomas Bolitho arrived in Penzance from Penryn, the smelting works at Chyandour was run by the Praed family. By the time tin production was at its maximum the business was run by the Bolitho family who lived in Coombe House, and in 1867 bought the estate at Trengwainton,
Madron Madron ( (village) or (parish)) is a civil parishes in England, civil parish and village in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Madron is named after Saint Madern's Church. Its annual Trafalgar Service commemorating the death of Horatio ...
. Still in use, the Bolitho Estate Office was built in 1860, and at that time the first floor was a bank with the vault under the caretaker's ground floor accommodation. Wagon drivers would stop at the bank to collect their money before driving up Chyandour Coombe to the smelting works. In 1883 the smelting works was the largest of nine in Cornwall covering to . It consisted of a number of long, one storey, slated buildings with several chimneys belching smoke and flames. There were four furnaces which were built of brick thick and clamped with iron bands. Each lasted five to six weeks, when it required rebuilding. Fifteen men worked twelve hour shifts, with nights every other week, for 19
shillings The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence ...
a week. The
tin ore Cassiterite is a tin oxide mineral, SnO2. It is generally opaque, but it is translucent in thin crystals. Its luster and multiple crystal faces produce a desirable gem. Cassiterite was the chief tin ore throughout ancient history and remains t ...
was stored between large wooden barriers (known as hutches) with each compartment storing differing qualities. The ore came straight from the mines, or from ″valuable″ Australian stream ore (containing 75% tin), or low quality ore from the ″Red River″. The ore was heated and the tin flowed into cast iron crucibles where it was re-heated to remove impurities. It was then ladled into bars, blocks, ingots, etc., which weighed from one pound to a hundredweight or more. A small iron slab with Messrs Bolitho's trade mark was laid on the molten tin to leave an impression and the tin was shipped within this country or exported to Russia, America, etc.
Anthracite Anthracite, also known as hard coal and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a lustre (mineralogy)#Submetallic lustre, submetallic lustre. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy densit ...
was brought in by sea, the ships landing on the beach near the mouth of the Chyandour Brook, which was outside the boundary of Penzance and hence they did not have to pay harbour dues. The cargo was carried through the three tunnels under the railway line and hauled up the slipway to the smelting works. The works closed in 1912 and was demolished in 1930; some of the walls and crucibles can still be seen. The tanning pits in the tanning yard and tens of thousands of pounds' worth of cured hides were removed in 1886. The yard was made into a ″shrubbery″.


Legends

The area between
Marazion Marazion (; ) is a Civil parishes in England, civil parish and town, on the shore of Mount's Bay in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is east of Penzance and the tidal island of St Michael's Mount is half-a-mile offshore. At tide, low wa ...
and Chyandour was mostly marsh and the Eastern Green was haunted by a white lady who would rise from the marsh, jump on the back of a traveller's horse and ride pillion-fashion as far as the Red River (Chyandour Brooke), just below the smelting works.


References

{{Cornwall, state=collapsed Penzance Hamlets in Cornwall