The Herald - The Herald Magazine
Cornwall Underground adventures and dramatic discoveries in a far corner of England
The real Poldark DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF CORNWALL
CLIMBING a clifftop path weaving through an endless carpet of heather, I look up to see a series of mines on the horizon. At St Agnes Head, which doubles for Nampara Valley in the BBC drama Poldark, the South West Coast Path leads to disused engine houses which once formed the backbone of a thriving mining industry.
Despite Aidan Turner’s best efforts to distract us with his torso, the Cornish coastline has proved to be as much of a character in the show as protagonist Ross.
The roaring ocean and wide, open skies are just as they would have been in the late 18th century, when countless tin and copper mines operated in Cornwall, and since the series took off Poldark fans have been flocking to witness them first-hand.
At the Levant Mine and Beam Engine in Pendeen, near Penzance, which viewers will recognise as Tressiders Rolling Mill, the cliffs were once alive with activity. Even though plenty of what once stood here has succumbed to the weather, there is still rich evidence of the work that went on, with disused skip shafts, tramways and chimney stacks as far as you can see. Just south of Levant you’ll find the Botallack Mine and West Wheal Owles, which double for the Grambler tin mine and Ross’s Wheal Leisure tin mine.
To learn more, I visit Poldark Mine (yes, it really is called that) near Helston. I don a hard hat before descending 160ft below the surface into the only complete underground mine open to the public in Cornwall and Devon. My guide, Wayne, explains this is where mining scenes for both the original and the current version of Poldark were filmed.
I stand on the exact spot where, in the first episode of series one, Ross tussled with his cousin Francis in the darkness and almost left him to drown. Wayne – a man so passionate about the Poldark Mine he got married in it – tells me they had to switch off pumps during filming to allow the mine to flood a little. Tracing the veins of blue copper, I learn how bad conditions were for many of the men working underground. They’d often spend 12 hours a day, six days a week down in the depths, and children as young as eight would crawl through tunnels 4ft tall and 2ft wide. Few miners lived beyond 40 due to accidents and poor health from lung conditions and arsenic poisoning. To find out what happened to the metals once they were extracted, I take a 10-minute drive to Cornwall Gold and the Tolgus Mill. Fields are scarred from hundreds of years of mining; tracks cutting through hills would once have transported tonnes of tin and copper across the county. Tolgus is the only working mill of its kind in the country. Today, tin is smelted on-site to create a range of jewellery – from wedding bands to 18 carat platinum pieces and white gold. There’s even a Demelza range, inspired by Poldark. After pausing for a cream tea at the Tolgus cafe, I drive along a twisting road to Porthgwarra, not far from Land’s End. From here, I begin a five-mile walk between filming locations on the Penwith peninsula. It’s a challenging trek that leaves me breathless from both the incline and the sweeping views of rocks giving way to golden beaches. The Poldark producers picked this spot for the scene where Demelza spies on Ross as he takes a dip.
Another bay that will soon be instantly recognisable to Poldark fans is Holywell Bay in north Cornwall. Towering sand dunes lead into the sea and Gull Rock. Arguably one of the most recognisable locations from the show is Charlestown. This untouched fishing hamlet with listed buildings has been used in countless films and TV shows, including Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland and Doctor Who.
The perfectly preserved working harbour stands in for the maritime port of Falmouth and Truro in Poldark. The manager of The Rashleigh Arms B&B inn, a stone’s throw from the waterfront, explains they’ve seen bookings drastically increase following the show’s success. Several of the town’s souvenir shops even have mugs for sale emblazoned with Turner’s face.
Many pubs were run by those who owned mines, and pubs often doubled up as the counting house for measuring finds and paying miners. I pay a visit to St Austell Brewery and take a tour of one of the oldest businesses in Cornwall, marvelling at machinery old and new, and learning about endless varieties of malts used in the fermentation process. Somehow, 9am doesn’t seem too early to sample St Austell’s finest beers and raise a toast to Cornwall – and the return of Poldark.