Camborne, England: travel guide to the heart of Cornish tin mining, Richard Trevithick and the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site

Camborne is a town in Cornwall, England, at the centre of what was once one of the most important metal-mining districts in the world. Together with neighbouring Redruth, it forms part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and its streets and surrounding countryside are dotted with the engine houses and relics of its industrial past.

For travellers searching for Camborne Cornwall, Cornish tin mining, Richard Trevithick or the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site, the town offers a rich industrial heritage and a proud engineering history.

A mining powerhouse

In the 18th and 19th centuries the Camborne and Redruth district boomed on copper and tin, at one time surrounded by hundreds of working mines and famed as one of the richest mining areas anywhere. The greatest of them was Dolcoath, nicknamed the Queen of Cornish Mines and once the deepest mine in Britain at over 3,500 feet; the Harriet Shaft engine house survives on the Great Flat Lode Trail. The district pioneered mining technology that spread around the world, and the Camborne School of Mines trained generations of engineers.

Richard Trevithick

Camborne's most famous son is the pioneering engineer Richard Trevithick (1771-1833), a developer of high-pressure steam power who built the first full-scale road steam locomotive, nicknamed the Puffing Devil, and drove it up Camborne Hill on Christmas Eve 1801, an event remembered in the well-known Cornish song. A statue of Trevithick stands in the town, and every April the town celebrates Trevithick Day, a festival of steam and mining heritage held since 1984 that draws tens of thousands of visitors.

Practical information

Just outside the centre, the King Edward Mine complex, once the training mine of the Camborne School of Mines, preserves historic buildings and a museum that is among the best places to experience Cornwall's tin-mining story. Camborne is well connected by rail and makes a good base for exploring the mining heritage of west Cornwall.