Camborne

Not to be confused with Cambourne.

Camborne is a town in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is at the western edge of a conurbation consisting of Camborne, Pool and Redruth.^[1]

Commercial Square

The population of Camborne was 20,010 at the 2001 census.^[2] The population of the whole conurbation was 39,937,^[3] making it the largest conurbation in Cornwall.

It is no longer an industrial town but the Camborne and Redruth district was formerly one of the richest tin mining areas in the world. The Camborne School of Mines was founded here in the 19th century to train engineers to work in the tin mines and is still in the town. Two of the famous mines of Camborne were Dolcoath, the 'Queen of Cornish Mines' (closed 1921), once the deepest mine in the world, and South Crofty, the last working tin mine in Europe, which closed in 1998.

Camborne Public Library and Richard Trevithick's statue

On Christmas Eve 1801, the Puffing Devil, a steam-powered road vehicle built by Camborne engineer Richard Trevithick, moved up Camborne Hill.^[4] It was the world's first self-propelled passenger carrying vehicle. The events have been turned into a local song:

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.

References

1. Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 203 Land's End ISBN 978-0-319-23148-7
2. "Census 2001 : Parish Headcounts : Camborne Civil Parish". Office for National Statistics. 2001. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2007-12-05.
3. "Census 2001: Key Statistics for Urban Areas in England and Wales" (PDF). Office for National Statistics. 2004. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2004-07-22. Retrieved 2007-12-05.
4. "BBC Cornwall - Nature - Camborne History". Archived from the original on 2005-03-11. Retrieved 2011-06-06.