The area around Minions, the highest village in Cornwall, is steeped in mining history.   In 1837 James Clymo a mine captain found rich copper ore deep in the rounded hill of Caradon.   The ore was so rich and plentiful that within a few years more than twenty mines crowded the moor around Caradon. A railway line was brought up to the eastern moor extending on granite sleepers (still to be seen outside the rear enThe Cornish miner had a very hard life, the search for copper took him deep under the earth.
At the end of an exhusting shift many had to climb a thousand feet of ladders, numbed and tired fingers fumbled the ladder rungs and falls were a daily occurrence.   At the height of the mining boom the average age of those buried in St. Cleer churchyard was no more than 21 years.   Thirty struggling years later it was all over.trance to Cheesewring Farm) around the slope of Stowes Hill to Kilmar Tor.