Camborne

Camborne has an oceanic climate typical of Cornwall with particularly narrow temperature ranges even by British standards. The absence of a large landmass nearby means that warm air from the continent gets cooled down over the sea in summer. In winter, cold air masses get moderated by the same effect. Rainfall is frequent all year due to moist air from the Gulf Stream.

The UK Met Office operate an Upper Air Station in Camborne.

The Market House

The first mention of the medieval Camborne churchtown is in 1181 although in 1931 the ruins of a probable Romano-British villa were found at Magor Farm, Illogan, near Camborne, and excavated that year under the guidance of the Royal Institution of Cornwall.[12][16]

There are also early Christian sites such as an inscribed altar stone, (now in the Church of St Martin and St Meriadoc), and dated to the 10th or 11th centuries, which attests to the existence of a settlement then.[17]

Langdon (1896) records seven stone crosses in the parish of which two are at Pendarves. By the late Middle Ages manorial holdings developed in the surrounding area, and church-paths linked the churchtown to the outlying hamlets. Cornish medieval mystery plays were held in a playing place and the churchyard is said to have had a pilgrimage chapel and holy well. John Norden visited in 1584 and described Camborne as "A churche standinge among the barrayne hills". At this time there would have been moors and rough grazing as well as small fields in the surrounding countryside.[12]

By 1708 Camborne had rights to hold markets and three fairs a year. A sign of increasing industrial activity and increasing industrial population is the first chapel built in 1806 and the development of a local Methodist community. In 1823 the population was around 2,000 and in 1841 it was 4,377, with 75 smiths recorded and over two-thirds of the working population employed in the mining industry. In the expanding town gasworks were opened in 1834, the Hayle Railway was built (1834–37) and Holmans opened a small foundry in 1839.[12] The current Market House was completed in 1866.[18]

View east from Dolcoath Mine, 1893

Mining is first recorded locally in the 1400s with early exploitation of the small streams cutting through the mineralised area and from shallow mines following lodes. Adit mining was first recorded in the 16th century.[12] The town is best known as a centre for the former Cornish tin and copper mining industry, having its working heyday during the later 18th and early 19th centuries. Camborne was just a village until transformed by the mining boom which began in the late 18th century and saw the Camborne and Redruth district become the "richest square mile in the old world".[19]

As the economic recession of the 1870s led to the first years of mining decline in Camborne, social tensions mounted. In October 1873 thousands of miners, aided and abetted by the townspeople, rioted against a hated, authoritarian police force. One of the greatest shows of mining defiance in Cornish history left the Town Hall vandalised, the Police Station ransacked, and the estimated fifty constables present in the town beaten and scattered. The militia were called in from Plymouth to quell the insurrection, and the Home Secretary, Robert Lowe, asked to be kept informed of events. The Camborne riots were reported in the national newspapers and Sir Colman Rashleigh, JP for Cornwall, had to address the Grand Jury regarding the tumult. The entire Camborne police force was found to be at fault and either removed from duty or transferred as a result. No rioter was ever convicted.[20]

Harriets Pumping Engine house, part of Dolcoath Mine, built in 1860

Dolcoath Mine, (English: Old Ground Mine), the 'Queen of Cornish Mines' was, at a depth of 3,500 feet (1,067 m), for many years the deepest mine in the world, not to mention one of the oldest before its closure in 1921. The last working tin mine in Europe, South Crofty, which closed in 1998, is also to be found in Camborne.[19]

Holmans Rock Drill from 1955 (taken from the 55 vol. of CSM Magazine)

Apart from the mines themselves, Camborne was also home to many important related industries, including the once world-renowned foundry of Holman Bros Ltd (CompAir). Holmans, a family business founded in 1801, was for generations, Camborne's, and indeed Cornwall's largest manufacturer of industrial equipment, even making the famous Sten submachine gun for a stint during the Second World War. The Holman Projector was used by the Royal Navy. At its height Holmans was spread over three sites within Camborne, employing some three and half thousand men. Despite Britain's industrial decline, Compair Holmans Camborne factory finally closed in 2003.[21]

A modest quantity of South Crofty tin was purchased by a local enterprise and this gradually dwindling stock is used to make specialist tin jewellery, branded as the South Crofty Collection. Tin originally mined at South Crofty was used to form the bronze medals awarded in the 2012 London Olympics.[22]

Because of the prior importance of metal mining to the Cornish economy, the Camborne School of Mines (CSM) developed as the only specialist hard rock education establishment in the United Kingdom, until the Royal School of Mines was established in 1851. Plans for the school were laid out in 1829, leading to the current school in 1888. It now forms part of the University of Exeter; it moved to the University's Tremough campus (now known as Penryn Campus) in 2004.[23]

Camborne Public Library, with Richard Trevithick's statue in front

On Christmas Eve 1801, the Puffing Devil – a steam-powered road locomotive built by Camborne engineer Richard Trevithick – made its way up Camborne Hill in Cornwall.[24] It was the world's first self-propelled passenger carrying vehicle. The events have been turned into a local song:[25]

Going up Camborne Hill, coming down,

Going up Camborne Hill, coming down,

The horses stood still,

The wheels turn around,

Going up Camborne Hill, coming down.

The Camborne and Redruth constituency was created for the 2010 general election, following a review of parliamentary representation in Cornwall by the Boundary Commission for England, which increased the number of seats in the county from five to six.[33] It is primarily a successor to the former Falmouth and Camborne seat.

In the 2019 United Kingdom general election the results were:

The old council offices

The Camborne Local Board was established in 1873; the seal was a mine shaft and engine house depicted with the date 1873 and the legend "The Local Board for the District of Camborne".[35] This was replaced by the Camborne Urban District in 1895 which built the council offices in 1903.[12] The urban district was merged with that of Redruth and parts of Redruth Rural District and Helston Rural District (both of which were being abolished) in 1934 to form the Camborne-Redruth Urban District. The urban district persisted until it was merged into the Kerrier district of Cornwall under the Local Government Act 1972.[36]

Until May 2021, Camborne was represented by five electoral divisions: Camborne Pendarves, Camborne Roskear, Camborne Trelowarren, Camborne Treslothan, and Camborne Treswithian. From the 2021 Cornwall Council election, Camborne will be covered by four divisions: Four Lanes, Beacon and Troon; Camborne Roskear and Tuckingmill; Camborne Trelowarren; and Camborne West and Treswithian.[37]

Political composition of Town Council

• Henry Eva Hocking, circa 1850-1873
• Joseph Treloar, 1873-1886
• Charles Rosevear, 1886-1901
• George Rosevear, 1901-1934

Camborne has been a major centre for Cornish wrestling for many centuries. There were various venues where tournaments were held including: the field adjoining the Pendarves Arms Inn at Beacon,[51][52] the Unicorn Inn,[53] the White Hart Inn[54] and the recreation ground.[55] There were various local cups that were competed for including the "Mrs Bramble Cup",[56] the "Allen Cup"[57] and the "Moreing Cup".[58]

Sam Ham (1880-1946),[59] was born in Condurrow near Camborne, was the 1910 middleweight Cornish wrestling champion of South Africa.[60][61]

See Cornish wrestling in Roskear and Cornish wrestling in Pool

• Camborne Town Band has been contesting music records from the late 19th century until the present day. It has performed on BBC Radio.[65]
• Holman Climax Male Voice Choir, based in Camborne, was formed in 1940 by Edgar S. Kessell (1910–1981).[66]

• Alan M. Kent's 2005 novel Proper job, Charlie Curnow! is set in and around the Trelawney Estate, a fictional housing estate on the outskirts of Camborne.[67]
• Zoie Palmer is an actress who was born in Camborne.[68]