Great Flat Lode – An insight into Cornwall’s Industrial Heritage

The Great Flat Lode

This video is of a cycle trip around the Mineral Tramways Heritage Project – Great Flat Lode Trail which can be walked or cycled and is part of the Cornwall Mineral Tramways Heritage Project.

The Trail is a circular trail around Carn Brea hill approx (12 km; 7.5 miles) long. .

The circular Great Flat Lode Trail is mostly off-road, taking you through farmland, heathland and industrial areas.  If you climb to the top  of to Carn Brea you will have a panoramic view of Cornwall.

The trail also follows part of the line of the Basset Mine Tramway, built to carry tin ore for processing at Wheal Basset Stamps and West Basset Stamps.

Basset Mine Tramway

It was also flatter than most, lying at an angle of 30 degrees instead of the usual 70 degrees from the horizontal – hence its name, the “Great Flat Lode”.  Fortunately, the area south of Carn Brea has remained relatively undisturbed, which explains why it now contains some of Cornwall’s finest remains of engine houses, tin dressing floors and other mining structures.

A related video is that of the Smoking Chimneys Day the occasion when fires were lit in many of the old chimneys in the area.

You can also view an image gallery from a trip around the Great Flat Lode trail which has more images of the mining buildings and structures.