Every year I attend the National Association of Mining History Organizations  (NAMHO) conference and field meet. This year I attended a field meet in Devon based at Morewellham Quay. 

This year the NAMHO event was hosted jointly by the Plymouth Caving Group and the Devon Mining Club, the meet was based at Morwellham Quay, a place of particular charm. I have no wish put down any previous NAMHO meets but I have to say that this was the best one that I have attended to date. I only wish I could have spent more time there.

 I motored down on the Friday, making a detour to Royal Forest of Dean to collect "Mole" AKA John Hine who was having transport problems. On the Saturday I did the trip into Devon Great Consols, followed by Wheal Frementor. Sunday was Bedford Consols in the morning, and Wheal Russell in the afternoon. On Monday I motored down to St Just to RV with a coach party from Morwellham. A walk over to Levant to see the engine in steam, a tour of Geevor followed by a trip down the ladders in Victory Shaft (300 feet) to the Geevor Adit.

As I have quite a lot of photographs, plus some other matters to cover, I have split this into separate pages. First Morwellham itself.

The place has changed a lot since I was last there in the early1990s, so has Devon Great Consols which I cover elsewhere. It is worthy of note that Morwellham was the major export route of copper ore from this mine, this by means of vessels similar to the one in the picture above. Morwellham was also the major route for the other local mines such as Wheal Russell and Gawton, but the fortunes of Morwellham after 1848 basically hinged on Devon Great Consols. The history of Morwellham has been well written, therefore I shall not attempt to cover it here.

At one time the place was an overgrown mess until being restored, but now forms a popular tourist attraction.

The above pictures do the place little justice as there is quite a lot more to see.

There was diversity of trips on offer, ranging from simple "walk in" underground tours, to ones requiring advanced skills. Not to mention surface walks. Also a good lecture program. On NAMHO events one is generally spoiled for choice.

The whole event went very well, and I really have to compliment the organisers for doing an excellent job. Below are a series of pages covering the underground trips in which I participated.

These pages will each open in a new window, so simply close each one down when you have finished with it to get back to here.

#1 Devon Great Consols

#2 Bedford Consols

#3 Wheal Russell

#4 Geevor Adit

Insider joke of the week:

"You can take a mole to a car but you cant make him drive it"