Redruth

Redruth (Cornish: Rysrudh) is a town in the south-west of Cornwall, in the United Kingdom. It lies to the east of the A393, approximately 8 miles west of Truro, 12 miles east of St Ives and 5 miles north-west of Falmouth.

Historically, Redruth was a small market town, overshadowed by its neighbours, until a boom in the need for copper ore in the late 17th century. Previously discarded as waste by tin miners, copper ore was needed to make brass, an essential metal in Industrial Revolution. Because of this, for about a century, Redruth became one of the richest and largest metal mining areas in Britain. The copper ore deposits brought a population boom to the town, but most miners' families remained poor.

By the late 18th century most copper ore was brought in from abroad, and two-thirds of Cornish miners emigrated to the Americas, Australasia and South Africa. Until March 1998 Cornwall had the last remaining fully operational tin mine in Europe (South Crofty at Pool, between Redruth and Camborne), but as a consequence of more efficient and cost effective methods of tin mining in the Far East, its demise was only a matter of time.

Today, Redruth is a small commercial town with a population of 12,352 in the 2001 census. It is twinned with Plumergat et Meriadec , Brittany, France and Mineral Point, Wisconsin, USA.

External links

• Redruth local information and business directory
• Redruth (DMOZ.org)
• Redruth School
• Redruth FC
• BBC Nation on Film