Kennall Vale Nature Reserve

Our last day and we walk up the road from the cottage to Kennall Vale and walk around the old gunpowder works

The Kennall Gunpowder Company

Established in 1812, the gunpowder works employed over 50 men during its peak years in the 1870s. At this point the Kennall Gunpowder Company consisted of the original works in Kennall Wood, including the Manager’s House, Sulphur Mill and workshops, the ‘new’ works in Roches Wood that was higher up the valley, the farm below the main works, the Saltpetre Refinery, the Magazines adjacent to the farm and the Charcoal Mill in Ponsanooth. In addition, the company also owned several cottages in the village.

Following the decline of Cornish mining and a reduction in demand for gunpowder, the works were sold at the end of the 19th century. The new owners continued with the production of cartridge and fuse powder but production ceased altogether in 1910.

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