Name: PRAZE AN BEEBLE
Council: Kerrier District Council
Location: South west Cornwall, miles south of Camborne, miles east of Hayle
Main period of industrial settlement growth: 1809-1840
Study Area: Tregonning/Porkellis
NGR: SW 63625 35800 (centre)
Main industry: Copper mining (service and estate centre)

Industrial history and significance

Praze an Beeble is a rare, possibly unique settlement within the CISI programme; there are fundamental question as to its origins and development which remain unanswered – how much did it house relocated agricultural and estate workers, trades and services as compared to industrial workers, how important was the proximity of Clowance, and its strategic position on a busy crossroads, how much was it a transport interchange (to use modern jargon) rather than an industrial centre? Many contemporary industrial settlements exhibit a degree of planning and landlord control – few appear to be as much an estate village like Praze. There would undoubtedly have been a village at Praze an Beeble even if there had been no local industrial activity as a settlement was already in place around the crossroads. The form and nature of the subsequent development however, its rows of cottages, public houses and chapels, is typical of an industrial settlement. Without the mines it seems likely Praze an Beeble would have been a far smaller, less planned settlement. Whether the settlement was an ‘industrial’ or agricultural service centre or a sort of estate village attached to Clowance is a moot point.

This settlement forms part of the proposed Cornwall & west Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site Bid, and is considered an important part of the context for the Bid.

Downloads:

The downloads offered below represent the different elements of the CISI Praze an Beeble Report including the core text and the four illustrative map figures.
 

Title	Description	Format	Size
CISI Praze an Beeble report	Report text.		931kb
Figure 1	Location map		349kb
Figure 2	Historical development map		298kb
Figure 3	Surviving historical components map		284kb
Figure 4	Gazetteer sites, existing designations and recommendations map		347kb

Last Updated: 16/12/2004. © Cornwall County Council, Historic Environment Service.