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Ding Dong is reputedly one of the oldest mines in Cornwall. A local legend even says that Joseph of Arimathea (accompanied by the young Jesus Christ) visited the location.

In fact, the name used to apply only to the central part of the "sett". Sixteen separate mines came together early in the 19th. century to form the present sett including Ding Dong in the middle.

Ding Dong is best known for the 28-inch inverted engine designed by Edward (Ned) Bull, which was installed at Ding Dong in 1796, and which infringed James Watt's condenser patent. Watt sent his lawyers who posted an injunction on the engine-house door, bringing work to a halt. Richard Trevithick then modified Bull's engine to bypass the condenser entirely and exhaust to atmosphere. This got around Watt's patent and was enthusiastically taken up by other mines in Cornwall. The modified engines are said to have produced a characteristic "puffing or chuffing" sound when working...

The Greenburrow engine house shown here is the best preserved of the three that still remain and can be seen for miles around. It was built in 1865 for a 40 inch pumping engine. By 1874 the mine had five beam engines and a workforce of 273 - impossible to conceive today in such a barren location! The mine finally closed in 1880 having produced 3,472 tons of black tin valued at £222,000 - an enormous sum for those days!