One of the world's oldest mining inns hosts the Christmas Cornish Mining Sundowner

There is no one who has been associated with Cornish mining who has not heard of Tyacks, situated in the centre of Camborne, itself once the epicentre of the world's copper and tin mining industries.

Established in 1780 the hotel is only a few yards from the site of the original Camborne School of Mines (CSM), and during my first few months at CSM, when I lived in rented accommodation just around the corner on Camborne Hill, it was my 'local' and was frequented by local miners and CSM students and staff. Once CSM moved to Pool, between Camborne and Redruth, and the family and I moved to Falmouth, I turned to other more convenient hostelries, and last night's sundowner at Tyacks was my first visit in over 40 years.

The old inn is steeped in atmosphere, as is our summer sundowner location, Falmouth's Chain Locker. But whereas the Chain Locker reflects Falmouth's nautical heritage, Tyacks highlights the area's rich mining history, and dotted all around the pub are pictures of Camborne's most famous mining engineer, Richard Trevithick (posting of 25 April 2015) and photos by arguably the 19th century's most accomplished mining photographer, also a Camborne man, J.C. Burrow (posting of 25 May 2015).

Appropriately there was a great turnout for the last sundowner of 2016, and I am sure that many of the faces in the photographs below will be familiar to many of you.

Twitter @barrywills