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Camborne, (, UK , forming the western end of the greater Camborne, Pool and Redruth Conurbation . It is now an ex-industrial town with a population when included with Redruth, Pool and 'satellite' Village s is approximately 45,000, making it the largest urban build-up in Kernow . MINING Camborne is best known as a centre for the former Cornish Tin and Copper Mining industry, having its working heyday during the later 18th and early 19th centuries. Camborne was just a village until transformed by the mining boom which began in the late eighteenth century and saw the Camborne and Redruth district become the richest mining area in the world. Although a considerable number of ruinous stacks and engine houses remain, they cannot begin to convey the scenes of 150 years ago when scores of mines transfigured the landscape. Dolcoath, (Cornish: ''Old Ground''), the 'Queen of Cornish Mines' was, at a depth of 3500 feet (1067 m), for many years the deepest mine in the world, not to mention one of the oldest before its closure in 1921. Indeed, the ''last'' tin mine in Europe , South Crofty, was to be found in Camborne until its closure in 1998. MINING RELATED Apart from the mines themselves, Camborne was also home to many important related industries, including the once world-renowned Foundry of Holmans . Holmans, a family business founded in 1801, was for generations, Camborne's, and indeed Cornwall's largest manufacturer of industrial equipment, even making the famous Sten Submachine Gun for a stint during the second world war. The Holman Projector was used by the Royal Navy. At its height Holmans was spread over three sites within Camborne, employing some three and half thousand men. Despite Britain's industrial decline, Holmans still survives today, albeit in a downsized form, as CompAir , with its HQ in High Wycombe , the countries largest specialists in compressed air equipment. WORLD'S FIRST "CAR" JOURNEY. Richard Trevithick , a miner's son, was born in Illogan, Cornwall, in 1771. Richard was educated at Camborne School. Trevithick went to work with his father at Wheal Treasury mine and soon revealed an aptitude for engineering. After making improvements to the Bull Steam Engine, he was promoted to engineer of the Ding Dong mine at Penzance. While at the Ding Dong mine he developed a successful high-pressure engine that was soon in great demand in Cornwall and South Wales for raising the ore and refuse from mines. This interest in high pressure steam boilers led to one of the worlds first Locomotive engines. His 'Puffing Devil' road locomotive, was first tested in Camborne in 1801, and is still remembered in the popular Cornish Folk Song , 'Going up Camborne Hill'. In February 1804, Trevithick produced the world's first steam engine to run successfully on rails. The Penydarren locomotive managed to haul ten tons of iron, seventy passengers and five wagons from the ironworks at Penydarren to the Merthyr-Cardiff Canal. During the nine mile journey the Penydarren locomotive reached speeds of nearly five miles an hour. However, despite his many achievements and innovations, he died a poor man, much of his work forgotten by the world at large. His statue can be found standing outside Camborne public library, and his achievements (not to mention steam power, mining, and Cornish culture as a whole) are celebrated every last Saturday of April as the town's ' Trevithick Day '. CAMBORNE SCHOOL OF MINES Because of the importance of metal mining to the Cornish economy, the Camborne School Of Mines (CSM) developed as the only specialist hard rock education establishment in the U.K. . Its beginnings can be traced to 1829 when plans for the school were first laid out and leading to the current school in 1888. It now forms part of the University Of Exeter , and relocated to the University's Tremough campus in 2004. CSM graduates are to be found working in the mining industry all over the world. See also: Camborne School Of Mines ROMAN SITE In 1921 the ruins of a Roman Villa were found at Magor Farm, Illogan , near Camborne. The only Roman site of any size to be present in the whole of Cornwall. RUGBY REGENERATION Despite a poor reputation as a Depressed region throughout much of Cornwall, Camborne, Pool and Redruth are at the centre of a £150 million redevelopment scheme which hopes to reverse decades of social-economic decline in this former industrial heartland of Cornwall. 'CPR Regeneration', one of the government's 19 'URCs' or Urban Regeneration Companies, oversee one of the largest urban renewal projects in the country, driving the regeneration of up to 1.5 square kilometres of land with the aim of creating more than 4,000 jobs and increasing wages in the area by 15%. POLITICS Since the 2005 Westminster Elections , Camborne now has a Lib Dem MP, Julia Goldsworthy , who is in favour of more Self-governance in Cornwall. Pro-Cornish party Mebyon Kernow who favour a Cornish Assembly has a large following in the area and recently became the largest political group on Camborne town council after a by-election. The party now has 4 councillors on Kerrier District Council and six councillors on the town council out of a total of 17 seats. Of the remaining 11 seats, the Liberal Democrats and the Labour Party both have five, and the Conservatives one. SEE ALSO The town name is repeated in Camborne, New Zealand , a seaside suburb of Porirua City developed by an investment company headed by a Mr Arthur Cornish. Most of its street names are of Cornish origin. EXTERNAL LINKS
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