Wheal Cock Mine was a copper and tin mine, working the northwestern part of the Corpus Christi Lode. There are several walled shafts and quite extensive dumps remaining west of the Southwest Coast Path and just opposite to the now leveled dump of Wheal Hen. Both mines were later incorporated with the Botallack Mine sett.
1778 At Wheal Cock the miners did not appear to be worried by the salt water often entering the workings. Pryce writes in 1778 (4) that "at Huel Cock ..in one place they have barely four feet of stratum to preserve them from the raging sea, yet they have rarely more than a dribble of salt water, which they occasionally stop with oakum or clay, inserted in the crannies through which it issues." It is recorded at a later date that a hole was drilled through the sea bed at Wheal Cock, the Atlantic Ocean was effectively kept out by means of a wooden plug.
Certainly the workings under the sea were not far from the sea bed. “I was once,” writes a scientific gentleman, “underground in Wheal Cock, a mine adjoining Botallack, during a storm. At the extremity of the level, seaward, some eighty or one hundred fathoms from the shore, little, could be heard of its effects, except at intervals, when the reflux of some unusually large wave projected a pebble outward pounding an rolling over the rocky bottom. But when standing beneath the base of the cliff, and in that part of the mine where but nine feet of rock stood between us and the ocean, the heavy roll of the large boulders, the ceaseless grinding of the pebbles, the fierce thundering of the billows, with the crackling and boiling as they rebounded, placed a tempest in its most appalling form too vividly before me to be ever forgotten.”
Tolven Mine lies just to the north of Wheal Cock, described by Joseph Carne in 1821 as Tolvaen Copper Mine, 'The levels of this mine are known to have been extended beneath under the sea; but as it has not been wrought since about 1754, I cannot obtain any particulars respecting it.'
1821 Joseph Carne, writing for the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, said of Wheal Cock 'This mine has not been wrought for several years; but I have collected the following particulars from an old miner. The mouth of the adit is very little above high water mark; at very high tides the sea flows into it. At the depth of about 20 fathoms a level is driven nearly 100 fathoms in length under the sea: the depth of the sea at that distance from the shore I am not acquainted with; but the space between the bottom of the sea and the end of the level must be very small; perhaps not more than five fathoms. In stormy weather, the thundering noise of the sea, and the concussion caused by the heavy waves dashing against the rocky beach, were so terrific that the affrightened workmen would sometimes fly from the spot, supposing the sea was actually breaking into it. In one part of this level the miners followed a bunch of ore about 12 fathoms above the level, and would have pursued it still further, had not the agents seen the danger and forbidden them. About 40 fathoms under high water mark, another level is driven under the sea about 30 fathoms in length, and the whole of the lode between this and the higher level is taken away. At 20 fathoms deeper, or 60 fathoms in all, a third level is driven about the same distance. Even in the deepest part, the workmen could distinctly hear the noise of the waves. The water in every level was very brackish, and was drawn to the adit by a small water engine.'
1851 the mine was at work again, but was worked by Botallack as a separate working. It was deepened and expanded and made a contribution to Botallack's income
1875, tin prices fell once again. Botallack Mine continued to work from Engine Shaft and Skip Shaft on the Wheal Cock section of the sett.
1894 A sudden rainstorm in November 1894 flooded the majority of Wheal Cock hampering production still further and another flooding incident within the next six months finally put paid to any future for Botallack Mine
1895 closure early in 1895.
1906 A new lease was granted by Lord Falmouth in about on the understanding that the headgear must be placed on a spot now known as Allen's Shaft - which was named after one of the directors. Little remains of the complex built around Allen's Shaft. The buildings were demolished when Geevor Tin Mines re-opened the shaft. Part of the engine house remains, as does all of the stack.
1908 A a company was formed to work Botallack to get out under the sea and hopefully reach the intersection of the Wheal Cock and Crowns lodes.