Hawkswood Mine was in the Hawk’s Wood above Berrio Bridge. The shaft can still be seen on modern Ordnance Survey maps. It was primarily a tungsten mine but also had some cassiterite, a source of tin, and some copper. There are extensive underground works from which gritty wolfram has been extracted, the source of the tungsten that made the working of the mine viable. It was worked in 1944 to 1946 and then again from 1952 to 1957. Other than some derelict remnants of buildings and equipment and a huge shaft entrance, nothing remains above ground.
Images of the mine taken in 2011 can be seen on the AditNow website. The Mindat.org website details the minerals as well as the geological history of the mine.
We have been fortunate to have passed to us two newspaper articles, sadly undated, and a spoken description of the mine. The newspaper articles feature Ralph Finch who worked at the mine in the 1950s and his story of operations there is highly informative. The second of the two articles also features Ralph; it describes an incredible incident at South Crofty in which Ralph single-handedly saved the lives of seven men. Ralph was born in St Neot in 1924 and married locally in 1946. His three children still live in and around the area. Ralph died in 2009 and his obituary was published in the Western Morning News.
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