Blue Hills and St. Agnes

As we were near St Agnes we spend the day at st Agnes and the nearby mines which dad found when he went for a run around the hills. Because he is crazy. 

The car did get us to the sea front. It just fit the roads. Just. It was very tight at points - glad I was not driving.

There was another tin mine there; much smaller but had a lovely shop. It was a much older example, back to the medical times so actually more understandable.

Difference between tin and rock

The original way to get tin from rock

In the shop at the end they gave up an example of how they created the jewellery from the freshly smelted tin. They were going to melt down the little cat she had made as it had a defect but my dad is a softy and insisted on saving the little cat from certain death. They were rather shocked but he got my sister a present at a very good price. (I just brought some earrings.)

After this we headed up some equally tiny roads to St. Agnes which is a tiny town with a beach but very lovely. The tide was in so we sat with cups of tea and cake (why not?) overlooking the sea.

Geevor Tin Mines

 While further down on the west coast, we were near loads of the old tin mines which dad really wanted to visit. So I found one where you could go down the mines and actually speak to a miner.

The first part was walking around the machine rooms. really not much clue what was going on. But I did enjoy the outfit.

My new look

                                     

Fascinated about something

 

 

 

They had the personal areas as if the miners had just left (which happened in the 80s). 

I looked. There were none left. :(

After the personal areas was the large sorting areas with the shaking tables which separated the rock from the tin. There were a lot of these. A lot! 

Miner.

The trip down the mine and chat to the miner wasn't quite as advertised. We did get to chat to a miner outside which was good. Dad and I had lots of questions; mom not so much. 

We left when another group come behind us so they could ask questions. They didn't really. And ended up following us through the mine passages. Which meant I didn't get as many photos as I wanted - I felt really bad about making them wait in the tiny corridors while I lined up a shot. 

I did go first so got some shots. This advantage was balanced with the fact that everyone behind me know where all the low parts of the tunnel where from the bangs and curses coming from the from, i.e me. 

On the evening we went to the Minack theatre. It was a bit stressful as it turns out we were booked in for another night, not the one we turned up one. But we got in anyway. It was "Tell me on a Sunday" which was ok but I wouldn't see it again. Good news though we were a lot warmer this time as we were a lot better prepared. Bad news was the Caribbean food hut was shut so we couldn't get any food. Thankfully we had brought extra cakes form the mine cafe because it was amazing and in huge slices so we were all good. :)