Botanic gardens rise from ashes of Cornish tin mine
1 February 2012
Five new botanic gardens are being created as part of an ambitious multi-million pound project to revive a former tin mine near Redruth in Cornwall.
The Grade II listed Robinson's Shaft was one of the last working tin mines until its closure in 1996. Now a £22.3 million grant from the Big Lottery alongside funds from the Homes and Communities Agency, the European Union and Cornwall County Council have brought about the transformation of the 7.5 hectare (19 acre) site, creating a major visitor attraction to be known as Heartlands with the Diaspora Botanical Gardens as one of the main features.
The gardens are intended as 'an area of horticultural excellence' and celebrate the rich history of Cornish gardening through the story of the hundreds of thousands of emigrants who left the county during a mass exodus in the 19th century in search of work as the tin mining industry declined.
Visitors move between five areas of the world where the emigrants settled: Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, North America and South America. The plants the Cornish took with them are part of the gardens as well as the new plants they brought back. Described as 'varied and lush', planting ranges from subtropical Australian tree ferns such as Norfolk Island tree fern Cyathea brownii to South American palms such as Butia capitata, and North American conifers including giant redwood Sequoiadendron giganteum.
Each garden is designed to reflect the character of the area it represents: so the Australian Garden is loosely based on an Aboriginal dot painting while New Zealand uses traditional Maori design forms. The gardens will also include an art installation by Cardiff-based artist David Mackie, Seams and Veins, with Cornish granite boulders inlaid with bronze patterns, words and symbols.