Cornwall's mining history is told by its engine houses, and around Camborne and Redruth there are more of them than anywhere else. This was the richest square of country in the whole mining world in the nineteenth century, producing copper and then tin on a scale that made the district a global centre of mining technology. Engineers, pumps and steam engines were built here and exported to mines on every continent, and Cornish miners themselves, known as Cousin Jacks, emigrated to Australia, South Africa, Mexico and North America and took their skills with them.
Camborne was the home of Richard Trevithick, who built the first full-size steam carriage to carry passengers on the road in 1801 and drove it up Fore Street and Camborne Hill. The town celebrates him with a Trevithick Day in April, when steam engines parade through the streets. Above the towns, the hill of Carn Brea has a monument to a local landowner and the remains of an old castle, and from the top there is a view that takes in the north and south coasts at once.
The area is not pretty in a conventional way. Chimneys and engine houses stand in fields, rows of terraced houses climb the slopes, and the landscape has the hard-worn look of a place that has been dug over many times. But it has a weight of history, and a rider with an eye for it will enjoy it. The roads here are busy, with the A30 carrying holiday traffic, but the minor roads that cross the old mining ground are interesting, with sharp bends, granite walls and sudden views.
Camborne, with twenty-two thousand people, is a practical town with fuel, supermarkets and bakeries. Redruth, just up the road, is larger and has more of the same. Four Lanes, a small village between them, has a few shops.
This is a place for a pasty, which the county's miners ate underground, held by the crust and finished with a good deal of pepper. The weather is mild, and the sea air carries across the high ground. Spring and autumn are the best months, and the low sun on the old granite is good for photographs.