Connor DownsGwinear-Gwithian

Connor Downs at a glance

Connor Downs and Angarrack: two villages east of Hayle with an industrial past

Connor Downs and Angarrack are neighbouring villages in the civil parish of Gwinear-Gwithian in west Cornwall, close to Hayle. Connor Downs (Goongoner in Cornish) is about two miles east of Hayle and straddles the old course of the A30, which has been bypassed by a new road to the north. Angarrack (An Garrek, the rock) is about a mile east of Hayle, in a narrow valley carved by the Angarrack River.

Connor Downs takes its name from Connerton, a medieval manor in the parish of Gwithian. The village has Connor Downs Primary School, a Spar petrol station, a pub and a garage.

Angarrack was once an industrial centre, with mining and quarrying in the valley and four mills on the river. A smelting house was built in 1704 and closed in 1881. The Angarrack viaduct stands immediately south of the village and carries the Cornish Main Line over the river. The present 11-span viaduct was built in 1888 for the Great Western Railway, beside the original. The river passes through a culvert into Copperhouse Pool at Hayle, then the Hayle Estuary and St Ives Bay.

The Hayle Railway opened in 1834 and ran from Hayle to Redruth. An incline above Angarrack was worked first by horses and, from 1843, by a stationary engine. The road to Connor Downs, Steamers Hill, recalls it. Charles Wesley preached at Angarrack in 1743, and the present Methodist chapel opened on 10 April 1874.