Watch out for that wagon!
BOOKING a staycation in West Cornwall this summer and plan to hold a picnic in the sand dunes at Gwithian near Hayle? If so, you might be advised to bring an extremely strong umbrella with you!
Recent coastal erosion following vegetation clearance two years ago has brought this 2ft gauge tipper wagon, and a length of track on which it ran, clearly into public view, perched on a cliffside 40ft above the very inviting surf-lapped sands.
Experts believe that the wagon, which appears to be all but fossilised, is around a century old – and sits waiting for a liberal dose of heavy wind and rain to bring it crashing down – so beachcombers beware!
The wagon is believed be a rare survivor from the Gwithian Tin Works, which in the first half of the 20th century recovered and sifted tin-rich sands from the beach, by which flows the Red River, a mineralladen stream visibly discoloured by mining waste from the Camborne-Redruth mining district. At first, the operation, set up in 1913 by Cornish Sands Limited, trading as the Beach Tin Operating Company (Gwithian) Ltd, constructed an aerial ropeway on pylons to lift sand to a sifting site on the clifftop above.
The ropeway, remains of which can be seen in the rocks, was subsequently replaced by a narrow gauge railway running through a tunnel carved, presumably by local miners, through the cliff to take the sand from the beach to the clifftop more efficiently.
The operation closed in the late Thirties and nature was left to reclaim the site which is prone to cliff falls. However, in 2019, the Carbis Bay Crew, a group of cavers, divers and climbers, cleared away the vegetation so that the wagon could be more clearly seen.