Par Smelter (Slag Locality), Tywardreath and Par, Cornwall, England, UKi

Regional Level Types
Par Smelter (Slag Locality)	Smelter (Built Over)
Tywardreath and Par	Civil Parish
Cornwall	County
England	Constituent Country
UK	Country

Slag occurrence from the 19th century Par lead smelter.

This locality is a little odd to position, as whilst the site of the smelting works lies just within the St Blaise parish boundary, the actual locality of the mineral bearing slag waste lies under the tidal waters just inside the adjacent Tywardreath & Par parish boundary.

One of the most notable features of the Par Lead Smelter was the 235-foot-high brick stack, constructed in 1857 and felled in 1907.

This stack, which was the tallest constructed in Cornwall, stood some distance away from the main works and was linked by a substantial flue system.

Whilst the brick work of the stack was demolished in 1907, the massive dressed granite foundations survived until 1966 when it was removed to make way for a new china clay store.

Examination of old mapping indicates that other buildings of the old smelter were latterly re-used for the Beaver Mills flour mill, latterly known as Cornwall Mills, these in turn survived into the 1970s when they were apparently destroyed by a fire.

The site of the smelter lies entirely within the current boundaries of the Par Docks complex and is not generally accessible, and there are now no visible remains of the former works.

Whilst this works is most known as a lead smelter, in the first half of the 19th century an attempt was made to smelt copper at the works with two furnaces constructed for this purpose, one to produce regulus and the other refined copper metal. This would appear to have been an unsuccessful trial with a recorded output of only 3 tons of copper regulus being sold in 1840.

As a consequence, rare blocks of copper slag can be found with associated copper minerals being present.

Geochronology

Geologic Time				Rocks, Minerals and Events
Phanerozoic
	Paleozoic
		Permian
			Guadalupian	ⓘ Major polymetallic mineralization ~270 Ma Cornwall, England, UK
			Cisuralian	ⓘ Porphyry dikes intruded (latest age) ~275 Ma Cornwall, England, UK ⓘ Greisenization (latest age) ~280 Ma Cornwall, England, UK ⓘ Porphyry dikes intruded (earliest age) ~280 Ma Cornwall, England, UK ⓘ Formation of metallized pegmatites ~285 Ma Cornwall, England, UK ⓘ Greisenization (earliest age) ~285 Ma Cornwall, England, UK ⓘ Emplacement of major plutons ~295 Ma Cornwall, England, UK

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References