Lowest tide in years reveals strange object with remarkable story
Rising out of a reef 220 metres out to sea, the cast iron pipe is thought to be part of one of the richest tin mines in Cornwall.
The lowest tide of the year has revealed an unusual object rising from a kelp-covered reef off the shore of Penzance.
Hidden underwater for most of the year, and only accessible at the very lowest tides, the large cast iron pipe which rises over a metre from the rocks is thought to be part of the ill-fated Wherry Mine, built almost 250 years ago and once described as ‘one of the richest tin mines in Cornwall’.
At just 0.22 metres, the spring tide on Friday 22 March at Penzance was the lowest tide in four years, and will not be matched until March 2024.
This particularly low tide meant that almost all of the pipe was above water and easily accessible for an hour in the middle of the day on Friday, giving a few adventurous people the chance to see it for the first time.
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Over 220 metres from the high tide mark at Wherrytown, this odd metal pipe is believed to mark the area where, in 1778, Thomas Curtis from Breage undertook an audacious plan to excavate a mine shaft below sea level, from a point that was almost 20 foot underwater at high tide.
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It was well known that tin was plentiful below this particular area of reef off Penzance, and there are suggestions that it was being mined here before 1778, one way or another. However, Curtis had greater plans, and constructed a tower rising up from the sea bed and above high water, so that men could descend into the mine shaft whatever the tide.
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Built from timber and iron and sealed with tarred fibre plugging the gaps, the tower above the shaft was fitted with a collar to stop the waves crashing over and flooding the mine. However, by all accounts it was far from water-tight.
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