History and Brief Guide to Mineshop and Crackington Haven.

Mineshop was named in two parts, ‘Mine’ after the working Lead and Zinc Mine, which was located in the valley and ‘Shop’ after The Blacksmith’s Shop now known as The Old Smithy. The Mine closed down in the early forties and the Blacksmiths Shop sometime in the Fifties.

We moved to Mineshop in 1966 and converted / Built the Cottages soon after, before this the Lee family owned the Valley and ran a Market Garden, growing Potatoes, Vegetables, Daffodils, Strawberries etc, on the whole of the South facing side of the Valley, all this was before the days of large Farm Machinery and was done solely by hand!!!

You can walk to the Beach at Crackington Haven by taking the footpath through the Valley fields until you join a small road, here turn right, follow the road to a Cottage on your left, at the bottom of a steep hill, just past the Cottage, take the footpath on your left, follow this path to Crackington Haven. Distance is about 1 mile and takes between 20 and 30 minutes.

At the Beach you will find a Pub selling good Ales and Bar Food, a excellent Coffee shop offering good value Lunches etc and also a Beach/Gift Shop.

Crackington Haven was mainly used for the Quarrying of Slate, large vessels would come in and Beach themselves at Mid tide, load up with Slate taken from the cliffs and on the next High tide sail away. Fishing was done but only on a small scale, due to sea conditions.