Wheal Unity Wood

The site lies immediately to the west of Chacewater, on the western boundary of the ancient parish of Kenwyn, and came under the jurisdiction of the Tywarnehayle Stannary. A large part of the area covered by this site was known for centuries as Killifreth Woods, which lay on the south-west side of Killifreth Downs. It was worked for tin from the late-medieval period, and in the early sixteenth century it became well-known for it. One of the earliest references to tin working at Killifreth was in a will dated 27 August 1517, where 'Whelle Yeste in Kyllefrethe Downe' was owned by the Tregian family. Thereafter, tin mining at Killifreth was mentioned several times in the sixteenth century. During the seventeenth century, between 1639 and the 1690s, the tin bounds on Killifreth Downs, including 'Wheel en Bush Vean' and 'Wheal an Bush', were re-registered several times. The mines on the north-eastern part of the downs, at what became Chacewater Bal or mine, and later Wheal Busy, left a continuous record of tin working, right up until the beginning of the eighteenth century.

By the 1690s, with copper in increasing demand by the burgeoning English metal-using industries, entrepreneurs were looking closely at the ore coming out of the deeper workings at Killifreth Downs, and men like John Coster and Gabriel Wayne were seeking to secure the supply of copper ore there. On the south side of Killifreth, where the mines of Wheal Unity and Wheal Unity Wood were later established, copper was also being found in abundance, and rich and important mines grew up.

During the second half of the eighteenth century the County Adit was driven into most of the copper mines of Gwennap and Kenwyn, and during the 1790s the branch to Wheal Unity, near to St Day, was extended to the workings in Unity Wood and Killifreth. A branch of the Adit went as far north as the edge of the woods, to the small mines known as Wood Mine and Wheal Union. Another branch came into Killifreth from Wheal Busy in the area of Wheal Vor Bounds. The branch from Wheal Unity was pushed east to Wheal Bush, past Blamey's, Trefusis and Magor's shafts. By 1818 Wheal Union was associated with North Wheal Unity, but neither were worked at any great depth.

A tin bounds map, dated 1820, shows Wheal Union in the northern part of the woods and Wood Mine just to its south. At Magor's Shaft were South Wheal Bush tin bounds, with Middle Wheal Bush and North Wheal Bush to the north. Various mine buildings were shown, together with a flat rod between an engine presumed to be on Trefusis Shaft and Magor's Shaft. Other tin bounds were shown all around the Wheal Unity Wood Site. Killifreth Woods produced a steady flow of tin during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and the Tregothnan Estate of Lord Falmouth drew a regular income from tin dues. However, as with the rest of the district, it was copper which produced the largest incomes in the area, and Lord Falmouth and the other mine owners and mineral lords were making large amounts of money from it.

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