Copperhouse Dock

A former canal dock. Built in circa 1769 for the Cornish Copper Company. C20 alterations.

MATERIALS: built of vertically-set, coursed blocks of cast copper slag, or scoria, from the Cornish Copper Company’s smelter. The lock walls at the west end are of granite ashlar. Timber lock gates.

PLAN: the dock is about 100m long and in two sections at an obtuse angle to each other, and narrower at the centre. There is a lock gate at the entrance to the western end, and at the eastern end is a C20 bridge over a sluice; there is a culvert on the north side.

DESCRIPTION: the battered retaining walls are of vertically set scoria blocks laid in courses. The rounded entrance at the west end of the dock is built of granite blocks with cast-iron posts and timber lock gates. At the east end is a C20 concrete bridge which incorporates some reused copper slag coping stones of pointed section. There is a round-arched culvert to the north side of the eastern extent of the dock.