THERE'S no need to dig deep to unearth evidence of Cornwall's industrial past.

The landscape is dotted with the ruins of copper and tin mines, once, the fulcrum of close-knit, working communities, now almost surreal structures in a county better known for cream teas and sandy beaches.

But landscapes evolve — the cover of 'Cornish Mines: Gwennap to the Tamar', the latest in the 'Pocket Cornwall' series by Alison Hodge Publishers, is a revealing aerial photograph of the Holmbush Mine in the Tamar Valley. In it, a reddish-brown ploughed field skirts close to the shell of the old mine building — a living industry nudging the remains of a past one.

Holmbush was primarily a copper and tin mine, but silver and arsenic were also produced there. Between 1822 and 1864 almost 300 people were employed at its peak.

The names of many of the mines when listed are poetic: Wheal Busy, Wheal Kitty, Wheal Friendly, Cligga, Ventonwyn and Clitters.

Gunnislake Clitters Mine has substantial remains. Copper ore was its main product, but black tin was a profitable item when its price leapt at the turn of the 19th century.

Drakewalls was once the richest tin mine in East Cornwall — its name comes from the Drake family who bought wasteland between two wells in the 14th century.

In 1866, Drakewalls and several other local mines saw an unsuccessful miners' strike and an attempt to form a union.

Further west, in the companion book, 'Cornish Mines: St Just to Redruth', a photograph of the remains of the stack at Wheal Metal in the Godolphin district, has an elaborate, tiled fascia. Another picture, an aerial shot of the Marriott's Shaft complex of Bassett Mines near Redruth looks uncannily like a victim of the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

l 'The Geology and Landscape of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly' is also in the 'Pocket Cornwall' series. Author Simon Camm, a Fellow of the Geological Society of London, delves into the dramatic rock exposures, describing the best sites and providing 'a gallery of rock types' that may be encountered in Cornwall.

l Cornish Mines: Gwennap to the Tamar' and 'Cornish Mines: St Just to Redruth' by Barry Gamble and 'The Geology and Landscape of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly' by Simon Camm are published by Alison Hodge Publishers, price £5.95 each.

COLIN BRENT