Welcome to the Cornwall Tourism Magazine - Cornwall Tourism Magazine - Redruth page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cornwall Tourism Magazine - Redruth.

 

Redruth is a large town situated in Mid Cornwall just off the A30. Along with nearby Camborne, Redruth with its population of over 13,000, is the part of the largest single area of urban settlement in Cornwall. Although the growth of Redruth is relatively modern, well over the last few hundred years, it actually goes back to Celtish times and indeed its original Celtish name, Rhyd-ruth, means ford across the river, ( Rhyd meaning ford ). Confusingly, it is the " ruth "part actually means Red so it would have originally been called Red Ford. Of course, if you look you will not find any rivers in Redruth and might wonder why it was called a ford, but that is easily explained. The original settlement of Redruth was located slightly to the south of where the town is today ( actually very near to Cam Brea village today ) and there is a small river there so it all makes sense. The Red part of the name came from the first settlers who started extracting metal ores which turned the colour of the river red.

 

 

Redruth's History - enter the churches.

 

Although the settlement has been around since at least 500 AD, it does not appear to have been mentioned in the Domesday Book so it would have been very tiny although a Norman Church was built there sometime in the late 11th and early 12th Century. However, it is thought that there was an even earlier church on the site before that built by St Euny himself which indicates that there may have been a reasonable amount of people living in the immediate area. It was in the 12th Century that Redruth began to flourish as a small market town and it must have been relatively important because a new church, part of St Euny's church today, was built in 1495, which is a sure sign a settlement is on the map, however, the current St Euny's church was rebuilt in 1786, but the tower is the original 15th Century item.

 

 

Mining, Copper Ore and population growth.

 

It was during the 18th Century that Redruth became a boom town and moved over to its current location when the demand for Copper ore suddenly exploded. Up until then, Redruth had been largely overlooked because cooper had no use to the tin mining industry that had been operating for a few centuries in other parts of Cornwall, however, in the 18th Century a massive demand for Brass blossomed and suddenly Copper was the new black. Being surrounded by shallow cooper ore veins, Redruth was the ideal copper mining location and it quickly become the place to be and the richest copper mining area in the UK. This attracted huge numbers of miners and related workers and Redruth grew enormously during this period, although it has to be said that despite the riches available for the copper, your average miner in those days was extremely poor: the land and mine owners were reaping most of the financial benefits.

 

Boom and bust.

 

Redruth's prosperity boomed and the population grew and needed more living space so the size of the town expanded outwards in all directions. As it grew in size, it began to move away from a purely mining area to a dedicated residential town, but the mining still dominated Redruth throughout this period . Such was its importance to the mining industry that it even had its own Mining Exchange were ore and minerals were sold on the open market, much like the Stock Exchange today. In the later 19th Century, a School of Mining and a free Library were built between 1882 - 1885. However, all good things have to come to an end and by the late 19th Century, the demand for copper in the are declined. The UK was importing most of its copper ore by then due to trade empires built over the last century and it was actually cheaper to import it than mine it locally, so Redruth went into a steep decline and many of the miners and their families emigrated to America, Australia and South Africa where their mining skills were in high demand due to new discoveries and the irony was that it was from these overseas mines that much of the imported ore came from, so the miners of Redruth were still having an impact on the UK. Today, you can see many old mining ruins around Redruth so the scars of its mining heritage still run deep.

 

 

Carn Brea castle.

 

To the south of Redruth there is a big hill called Carn Brea and sitting on top of it is Carn Brea Castle which you cannot really miss as it can be seen for miles around. It wasbuilt in the 14th Century from local stone. It was originally built as a small chapel in 1379. It has over the centuries been extensively remodelled, mostly in the 18th Century where is wasturnedinto a hunting lodge by the then owners the Basset family in a mock gothic style. It is very unusual in that it was built on a large stone out crop so it looks from some angles like it was simply plonked on top of the rocks. It also has an irregular layout with 4 rectangular turrets round a core of the same height and an embattled parapet. Due to its prominece and the height of Carn Brea, Its was also used as a beacon for ships in the late 19th Century, via a lamp in its upper nothern window, although as it is quite far from any coastline, we are not sure how effective it would have been, especially in fog. It has had long periods of disuse and disrepair in the 1950s to 1970s, until it was renovationed between 1975 - 1980 when it was given a Grade 11 listing by English Heritage. In the 1980s the building was converted into a Middle Eastern restaurant which is still is to this day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Find the towns in Cornwall - by map.

 

Please use the map to locate the town of your choice and click on the appropriate icon and link which will take you to the relevant towns page where you can find out about its history, what to do and see there, local villages, images and other interesting items and facts. Alternatively, you can use the manual selection section below where we have alphabetically listed most of the major towns in Cornwall in their appropriate region. To use it, just click on a Town name button and the link will take you to its relevant page.

 

Using the map.

 

To locate a town, please put your curser on the map face, left click your mouse and then use it to move a scroll around the map. The towns will all have a small white balloon icon so when you wish to view a town page, left click on the towns icon, and then click on the link that will appear with the towns name on it. You will then be taken to the towns relevant page. You will find the map on all town pages so if you want to look up another town, just locate it on the map and click on the appropriate icon as described here.

 

Map of Cornwall - Click on the balloon icon link to a town and click on the link when it opens.