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Wheal Anna Maria – a copper and arsenic mine – covered 3.2 hectares and had over 6,850 cubic metres of arsenic flues! It was named after the Duchess of Bedford! Her main workings were on the ‘Main Lode‘ (the largest sulphide deposit in southwest England). When its rich copper waned, Devon Great Consols became the largest arsenic mine in the world because the margins of the copper-rich lode were dominated by arsenopyrite. In 1860 the copper lode at Anna Maria was up to 45 feet wide and yielding up to 80 tons per fathom, but by around 1880 the copper boom was over. Thankfully, arsenic production sustained the mine into the 1900s, until the company folded. Arsenic ore, unlike copper ore, was refined on site using the ‘calcination’ process – and at Wheal Anna Maria they yielded over 72,000 tons of refined arsenic! – Whoop!

Nice spot to take a break and enjoy the views

So that everyone knows where we are going...

Area of coniferous woodland, near Tavistock, situated on the banks of the river Tamar. The woods are home to plenty of hiking and bike trails, and offer plenty of scope for exploration.

Kit Hill sits high above the Tamar Valley, overlooking the river and the valley it formed. The hill boasts a wide array of history, including 18 burial mounds, neolithic and bronze-age barrows, as well as pointers towards Cornwall's more contemporary mining history.

Wheal Anna Maria was originally a copper and later an arsenic mine. The biggest arsenic mine in the world. The ruins you can see are from the arsenic calcining complex where the arsenic-ore was crushed then roasted (calcinated). The white powder of arsenic would coat the walls of the flues and be scraped off by men and children. They were protected from the extremely toxic poison only by cotton wool in their ears and noses and rags covering their mouths! They even had to scrape the white powder off their boots before going home.

Beautiful views up here from Blanchdown Wood on the Mineral Railway. Look down and you will see the spoil heaps of the Great Devon Consols, the name of the mine once situated here. First copper and then arsenic was mined here and signs of the long gone industry can be seen throughout Blanchdown Wood.

Another trig pointed Marilyn but nothing to write home about. A pretty part of the world no less. A 2.5 mile (4 km) windy stroll up Kit Hill 1,095 feet (334 m) near Tavistock before the wind and rain starts in earnest.