[2] Hamlets of Burncoose, Comford, Coombe, Crofthandy, Cusgarne, Fernsplatt, Frogpool, Hick's Mill, Tresamble and United Downs lie in the parish, as does Little Beside country house.

Wesley's Journal records, "The wind was so high that I could not stand at the usual place at the village of Gwennap; but a small distance was a hollow capable of containing many thousands of people.

[12] Mining in Gwennap is an industry stretching back to prehistoric times when tin streaming in the Carnon Valley is believed to have occurred.

In surrounding valleys stones of cassiterite (SnO2) were washed downstream from outcropping lodes and trapped in the alluvial mud where they could be easily extracted.

Early evidence of the antiquity of mining in Gwennap is recorded in the Stannary Roll of 1305–06 which notes that Johannes Margh of Trevarth sent thirty shipments of tin to Truro.

Early modern 'crazing mills' powered by water, such as that which existed at Penventon, were built to grind, and later stamp the tin ore.

Demand for charcoal in the smelting process rapidly depleted Gwennap's ancient woodland, leaving a wild, moorland, landscape.

Deep exploitation of the tin lodes was not possible with the limited technology of the early modern period as Cornish mines were wet due to the high rainfall of the area.

His eldest son, Francis (1780–1860) followed in his fathers footsteps expanding the practice to include steam engine drives for corn mills and a small workshop and foundry in Redruth.

[13] Such innovations coincided with an increased national demand for copper, needed in the brass parts for the machinery of the Industrial Revolution.

Consolidated Mines alone had nineteen engine houses for pumping, winding and crushing: the red waste rock from deep underground lay strewn about the moors and the valleys constantly echoed to the roar of the 'stamps'.

Another visible sign of industrialisation was the construction of mineral tramways which transported copper ore and Welsh coal to and from coastal ports more efficiently than packs of mules.

In Gwennap no such deposits were found and when low prices caused the collapse of the copper market in the 1860s, many mines were forced to close or amalgamate.

Many of the mines that continued or went over to tin production could not survive the rising cost of coal and the fluctuations of mineral prices, causing a second wave of closures in the mid-1870s.