The Treffry Tramways were a group of mineral tramways in Cornwall in the United Kingdom, constructed by Joseph Treffry (1782–1850), a local land owner and entrepreneur. They were constructed to give transport facilities to several mines and pits producing non-ferrous metal, granite and china clay in the area between the Luxulyan Valley and Newquay, and were horse-operated, with the use of water and steam power on inclines, and at first operated in conjunction with the Par Canal and Par Docks, also constructed by Treffry. One of the routes crossed the Luxulyan Valley on a large viaduct, the largest in Cornwall when it was built.
The tramways were opened in stages from 1835 to 1870. They provided a dramatic improvement in mineral transport, but they were technically obsolescent, and they were taken over in 1874 by the Cornwall Minerals Railway, a cash-rich company which invested heavily in improving railway transport in the area, making the lines suitable for locomotive operation and extending them.
The original sections were laid without the need for an act of Parliament, as a private venture, and the name of the lines is not defined; some writers refer to them as Treffry's Railway and other variants of the title. Tramway means a lightly constructed railway which is not generally fenced off. This is the essential character of a tramway, including street-running passenger lines in urban areas.
Today sections of the tramway route are still in use by passenger trains operating as the Atlantic Coast Line between Par and Newquay.
History Par Canal and Fowey Consols Joseph Treffry inherited large estates in Cornwall, including non-ferrous mines in high ground on both sides of the Luxulyan Valley. Transport of the heavy extracted minerals to market was a significant challenge, relying on horse-drawn carts on inferior roads.
Treffry's home was in Fowey where there was deep water berthing for coastal shipping; he had built improved quay facilities there in 1811 and 1813. He hoped to build a tramway to bring mineral products from the Luxulyan Valley to Fowey, but Charles Rashleigh owned intermediate lands that Treffry would need. Rashleigh also owned the harbour at Charlestown, which would be disadvantaged by Treffry's scheme, and he refused to allow the use of his land.John Vaughan, Branches and Byways Cornwall, Oxford Publishing Company, Hersham, 2002,
Treffry turned his thoughts to developing a harbour at Par, and he had one built there to the west of the mouth of the Par River; it was in operation from 1833. He built the Par Canal, connecting Pontsmill with the harbour. It was operational in 1840. He had a mine at Lanescot to the east of Pontsmill; it proved to be founded on a rich source of copper and developed into the Fowey Consols mine, and Treffry built a narrow gauge tramway on an inclined plane to bring the mineral from the shaft heads to Pontsmill.
The line was long and self-acting, with a short tunnel under the St Blazey to Lostwithiel road. A second inclined plane was built, according to Bodman a little to the south of the first; it was long, including a tunnel section long; it was double track and narrow gauge. It was powered by a water wheel, and the leat to power it was in length, being brought from Molinnis.
A contemporary plan seems to suggest the north and south sections are reversed:from Bodman's order the northern line is double track and the tunnel mouth is close to the pit head; it is marked "Tunnel and Rail Road on an inclined Plane for conveying Materials from Mr. Treffry's Canal to the Mine". The southern tramway is marked "Rail Road for conveying the Ore from the Floors over the Inclined Plane to the Canal from whence it is taken for Sampling and Shipment per Water to the Wharfs at Par."A Surface Plan of Fowey Consols Mine, contemporary undated, at ; free registration required.
The incline was in operation from 1835, and Pontsmill became a centre for the processing of mineral; china clay was carted to the canal basin from the Hensbarrow area to the north-west of the Luxulyan Valley. Treffry had also installed an steam engine, at the time the most powerful in Cornwall, at Fowey Consols, and this engine, known as the Austen engine, was symbolic of Treffry's exploitation of industrial progress.
Copper production was very demanding of transport: of coal inwards to fuel the engines, and of the ore outwards to the refining plant. In both cases this traffic was from and to South Wales, and the coastal shipping route was round Land's End, a difficult and dangerous passage. In 1835 Treffry let it be known that he intended to connect Par and Newquay by tramway or railway. There was a small harbour at Newquay, and its location on the north coast favoured communication with South Wales.Cornwall Archaeological Unit, The Luxulyan Valley Project: an Archaeological and Historical Survey, Cornwall County Council, Truro, 1988John Vaughan, The Newquay Branch and its Branches, Haynes/Oxford Publishing Company, Sparkford, 1991, E T MacDermot, History of the Great Western Railway, vol II, published by the Great Western Railway, London, 1931, pages 329 - 332
Par Consols Treffry repeated the technique of inclined plane tramways to connect Par Consols mine, located on high ground to the north-west of Par Harbour. It was long on a gradient of . Although the bulk of the traffic was downhill, coal had to be brought up to the mine head, and it was not possible to bring leats to the location, so that Treffry had to install a steam engine (rather than a water wheel) to power the uphaul. The tramway started work in 1841.
From Pontsmill to Colcerrow
Undaunted by the difficult topography that a route to Newquay would have to traverse, Treffry had an initial section planned: a line from Pontsmill to Colcerrow Quarry, a distance of a little under . The first part was to be another incline,Actually varying from to , the Carmears Incline, about long, followed by a longer nearly-level section at the head. This line opened in 1841; the incline was cable-operated, driven by a water wheel. The wheel was in diameter by and it generated , lifting up the incline in 10 minutes. A considerable extent of new leats were made to bring water to the wheel, later augmented by a leat taken over the Treffry Viaduct. The track was formed of T-section rail on stone blocks, and was single line to the standard gauge.
The line was built on land owned by Treffry or by agreement with the owner and the commissioners of the turnpike trust, and no authorising act of Parliament was needed nor sought. Although by this time locomotive traction had proved itself as effective in railway use, Treffry settled for horse operation as it would be three-quarters of the cost of locomotives. Treffry also used water wheels in preference to stationary steam engines where water was available, in view of the low operating cost. Coal was not naturally available in Cornwall and was expensive.David St John Thomas, A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain – Volume I – the West Country, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1966, page 111 Minerals brought down to Pontsmill were transshipped to barges on Treffry's canal for onward conveyance to Par Harbour and coastal shipping.D S Barrie and "Precursor", Railway Relics in West Cornwall, Railway Magazine, December 1933
On to Molinnis The short section to Colcerrow was only a start, and the tramway was continued to Molinnis,In his Newquay Branch work, Vaughan consistently spells this Mollinis, and Thomas spells it similarly, but this seems not to be supported in available documents; and Vaughan spells it Molinnis in his Branches & Byways book. near Bugle. While the gradients were easier here, it was necessary to cross to the west side of the valley, and a large viaduct was built to carry the line. Known as the Treffry Viaduct, it was in length with ten arches, and was high. It was the first large granite viaduct in Cornwall: the foundation stone was laid in March 1839 and weighed .R Hansford Worth, Early Western Railroads, paper read to the Plymouth Institution and Devon and Cornwall Natural History Society, 8 March 1888, reprinted (undated) by Avon-Anglia Publications and Services, Weston-super-Mare, As well as carrying the tramway it contained a leat conveying water down to the Carmears waterwheel.Martin Bodman, Inclined Planes in the South West, Twelveheads Press, Chacewater, 2012,
The viaduct cost £6,708 to build; the civil engineer for the scheme was James Meadows Rendel, and William Pease acted as project manager. As part of the construction process for the viaduct, a temporary inclined plane tramway was made, about in length leading due south up from the watercourse nearby.R A Otter (editor), Civil Engineering Heritage: Southern England, Thomas Telford Limited, London, 1994, Christopher Awdry, Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies, Patrick Stephens Limited, Wellingborough, 1990, Eric Kentley, Cornwall's Bridge & Viaduct Heritage, Twelveheads Press, Chacewater, 2005,
The Molinnis terminal, near the Bugle Inn, gave access to numerous mineral workings in that area, particularly china clay, china stone and tin. This section of Treffry's tramway opened in early 1844.According to Vaughan: he says, "Although many railway history books show the ... opening on 18th May 1847, all the evidence shows it was opened early in 1844, according to the Pease diaries and the West Briton [newspaper]. Certainly the incline, viaduct and tramway were open by then." Baxter quotes 1847; MacDermot does not give a date for the tramway, but states that the viaduct was finished in 1842. The exhaustive Cornwall County Council archaeological survey says (page 44) the viaduct "was built during the period 1839 to 1842"; but on page 45, referring to the mineral activities in general, states "By 1845 this extraordinary industrial complex was fully operational."
In 1855 the Pontsmill to Bugle line was extended to Par Harbour alongside the Par Canal, thus removing the need to transship goods at Pontsmill.
Reaching Newquay
While Treffry's emphasis had been at the southern end of his planned line, work started by 1844 on a line from Newquay Harbour to East Wheal Rose, an important lead mine a short distance south-east of the village of St Newlyn East, itself south of Newquay. Work was also in progress in connecting to St Dennis and Hendra, about east of Newquay, and destined to be on the line to Molinnis.
An act of Parliament, the Newquay (Cornwall) Pier and Harbour Act 1844 (7 & 8 Vict. c. xxiii), was secured in 1844 for the "Treffry Estate Railway, or Newquay Railway",E F Carter, An Historical Geography of the Railways of the British Isles, Cassell, London, 1959 and this may have been due to the greater involvement in public works of the Newquay line construction. A further act of Parliament, the (20 & 21 Vict. c. xcv), confirmed the right of the trustees to operate and maintain the lines already built, but allowed the abandonment of some sections authorised but not built; this latter act forbade the use of locomotives without the approval of the Board of Trade.
The line from Newquay Harbour to East Wheal Rose was in operation by February 1849, and the line to St Dennis and Hendra Crazey was opened in June 1849.MacDermot says January 1849 (page 330). There were china clay workings on Hendra Downs, high above St Dennis on the east, and for the time being the intended connection there was not made.
There were three tunnels on the line; one on the incline to Newquay Harbour, one at Coswarth—at in length, really a bridge—and Toldish Tunnel, in length. The incline from Newquay Harbour was at and was worked by stationary engine and wire rope.