Redruth was formerly the capital of the largest and richest metal mining area in Britain.

On Carn Brea can he seen the remains of one of the oldest and largest human settlements in Cornwall, a 46-acre Neolithic hillfort. Minerals were probably worked here since the Bronze Age, and by the Middle Ages mining was well-established. The red colour of the river gave its name to the ford from which the town derives its Cornish name (rhyd= ford, ruth = red). There were a great number of mines in this parish, many of which were highly productive in both copper and tin.

In 1591, Redruth was visited by the plague which occasioned the death of 91 of the then population of around 1000 people.