RICHARD TREVITHICK
Richard Trevithick (1771 - 1832) was born within sight of Dolcoath Mine, where his father was a Captain. He grew up in the Camborne area, which was deeply involved in the innovations of the budding industrial revolution. Trevithick became a mine engineer and pioneered the use of controversial high pressure pumping engines for Cornish copper and tin mines. He was prolific with his ideas and inventions, leaving a legacy of a number of patents covering diverse fields, and is well known locally for his "Camborne road carriage", nick-named the "Puffin Devil", which made successful passenger-carrying trials in 1801. Many consider it to be the first auto-mobile. Trevithick was also the first to successfully run a steam-powered engine pulling carriages on rails at Pennydarren, South Wales, in 1804. He followed this with a try at an entrepreneurial venture of a passenger carrying circular railway in London, called the "Catch-me-who-can". Trevithick's keen mind poured out inventions at an astonishing rate, but he did not achieve due recognition for his accomplishments. His experiments with steam carriages failed to arouse any great enthusiasm and proved quite profitless to him. In 1816 Trevithick left to spent some years in Peru working on projects linked with the silver mines, before returning to Cornwall in 1827, where he found that the high-pressure engine had become widely accepted, and was being further developed for railways and ships. He died in Dartford, Kent, while working on a project to develop a reaction turbine. Trevithick married Jane Harvey, whose family owned a major foundry in nearby Hayle, and his custom helped set up Holmans Foundry in Camborne, which became a major local employer and engineering base and still survives today as CompAir. Camborne is justly proud of Trevithick, and his contribution towards the technology that we take for granted today.
CAMBORNE TREVITHICK-DAY
Camborne Trevithick-Day was established in 1983, and the community event has quickly become an important part of the Cornish calendar, attracting some 25,000 to 30,000 visitors.
The aim was to provide a day of free entertainment to celebrate Camborne's links with Trevithick and celebrate the local industrial heritage. All the main street are closed to traffic for the day, and the major components of the annual Trevithick-Day are as follows-
- Bal Maidens & Miners Dance
- led by miniature steam engines and Camborne Town Band, involving an average of eight schools and 240 children (maximum practical number for management) dressed in traditional costumes of miners and bal-maidens
- Trevithick's Dance
- adults processional dance, led by Camborne Town Band. Dancers dressed in gold and black, Cornish colours.
(both dances follow a route that takes them through the central streets of the town)
- Indoor exhibitions
- i.e. schools competition entries, Centenary Church Flower Festival, display on the life of Trevithick, model exhibition (trains, steam vehicles etc)
- Static Displays
- of steam vehicles, fair organs, stationery engines, vintage vehicles, etc.
- Free Street Entertainment
- e.g. from locally based performers Climax Male Voice Choir, Fourlanes Choir, Camborne Town Band, and buskers, musicians, jugglers, theatre groups etc.
- The Annual Steam parade
- The engines will steam along Church Street, down Wellington Road and Trelawney Road, then up (Camborne Hill) Tehidy Road and back to Basset Road.
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