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Polgooth ((コーンウォール語:Pollgoodh))〔(Place-names in the Standard Written Form (SWF) ) : (List of place-names agreed by the MAGA Signage Panel ). Cornish Language Partnership.〕 is a former mining village in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It lies mainly in the parish of St Mewan and partly in the parish of St Ewe. The nearest town is St Austell two miles (3.5 km) to the north-east. =="The greatest tin mine in the world"== Antiquarians once claimed that the mines of Polgooth had supplied Phoenician traders with tin 3000 years ago,〔Journal of the Society of Arts Vol 1, p.550 (1853)〕 but in fact the earliest historical record is a list compiled in 1593, in which several well-established Polgooth workings were named. At that time and subsequently, the mines were owned by the Edgcumbe family.〔http://www.historic-cornwall.org.uk/cisi/polgooth/polgooth.htm〕 By the eighteenth century, Polgooth was celebrated as the "greatest tin mine in the world"〔The Monthly Magazine, 16 p.265 (1803)〕 and the richest mine in the United Kingdom. To pump water from the workings an early 50-inch Newcomen steam engine was erected in 1727〔http://www.cornwallinfocus.co.uk/history/gtpolgooth.php〕 by Joseph Hornblower, superseded in 1784 by a 58-inch Boulton & Watt steam engine〔S. Smiles, Lives of Boulton & Watt, pp71 & 339 (1865)〕 and in 1823 (when John Taylor was manager) by an 80-inch William Sims engine. In 1822, Polgooth was the birthplace of geologist John Arthur Phillips. In the late eighteenth century shareholders or 'adventurers' in the mines included the engineers James Watt (who may have lived in Polgooth for a time) and Matthew Boulton, the industrialist John Wilkinson, local entrepreneur Charles Rashleigh (who built the port of Charlestown, from which much of the tin was shipped), landowner Lord Henry Arundell, and the potters Josiah and John Wedgwood.〔J. Lord, Capital and steam-power, p.118 (1923)〕〔Eliza Meteyard, ''The Life of Josiah Wedgwood'', p. 479 (1866).〕 By 1800, over 1000 people were employed at Polgooth though, judging by a contemporary visitor, not in the most cheerful of conditions: "The shafts...are scattered over a considerable extent of sterile ground, whose dreary appearance, and the sallow countenances of the miners, concur to excite ideas of gloom, apprehension, and melancholy."〔J. Britton et al., The beauties of England and Wales, p.425 (1809)〕 In the nineteenth century, disputes and periodic slumps in tin prices led to several cycles of closures and reopenings. In 1836, a new mine known as South Polgooth opened to the west of the village, producing not only tin, but copper, wolfram, arsenic, and zinc. However, falling prices meant that by 1894 mining at Polgooth came to an end, though some little work continued at South Polgooth till 1916 and the spoil heaps were picked over till 1929.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Polgooth」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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