By Mary Dodge Allen
Through Ancestry research, I learned that my great, great grandfather Nicholas and his brother Thomas were tin miners from Cornwall, England, and they emigrated to North America with their young families in the 1880's.
I've seen the BBC Drama Series Poldark, which vividly depicts the difficult lives of Cornish tin miners during the time frame of 1783 - 1801. But I wanted to learn more.
What were the lives of Cornish tin miners really like?
This photo of a Cornish tin miner (above) was probably taken some time after the 1870's, when photographers began capturing images of Cornish towns and local life. Note that he's wearing only a lightweight 'bowler' style hat. Safety helmets didn't come into use until decades later.
To get a firsthand look at what Cornish life was like, I recently flew to Cornwall with my husband, and we spent a week with a Cornish tour guide, learning about the history of this land. The highlight was touring a former tin mine near the area where my ancestors lived. (Cornwall is located in the far southwestern corner of England.)
The Life of a Cornish Tin Miner in the 1800's
This early photo of Cornish miners (above) shows the use of candles as head lamps. Note the flimsy head covering - bowler hats and head scarves.
Tin and copper miners worked 12-hour shifts underground in hot, damp conditions, breathing in rock/mineral dust. Lung diseases were common, and good medical care was scarce. Because the heat in these mines could approach 100 F (degrees Fahrenheit), many miners worked without shirts.
After these long shifts, weary miners often walked long distances to home, stumbling in the dark, across uneven ground, with only a "miner's lantern" - a candle placed in an old treacle-tin (molasses can) pierced with holes.
In 1842, Mr. Jory Henwood wrote a letter to the Royal Commission, set up to investigate mining conditions in Cornwall:
"I have known instances, where men who had to remain in an atmosphere of 96 F [degrees] whilst at their employ, at a late hour of the night had to walk three miles to their homes. Some of them were too poor to be well clad, and after so frightful a transition of temperature and so long a walk against a fierce and biting wind have often reached home without a fire and had to creep to bed with no more nourishing food and drink than barley-bread or potatoes with cold water."
Cornish Mining Families
Cornish miners often married young, many of them at age 16 (sometimes hurried along by a pregnancy). Even though child mortality was high, due to disease and lack of nutrition, these early marriages produced large families. Boys as young as ten years old (and younger) were sent to work in the mines to support the family. They worked long shifts, hauling ore carts and carrying tools and water up and down steep, unstable wooden ladders.
Cornish Family Diet
Cornish mining families were often too poor to afford butcher's meat like beef or mutton, or even wheat flour for bread, using the cheaper barley flour instead. Many miners kept their own pigs, and their wives and children tended small gardens, growing potatoes, carrots and turnips. At meals, only small amounts of pork were put into stews that were heaped with potatoes, to feed a family with several children.
A typical miner's breakfast consisted of barley gruel and hot tea. (If black tea was too expensive, they drank an herbal tea of brewed blackberry leaves or dried heather.) A miner's dinner might include fish - usually salted pilchard (Cornish sardine) - and eggs, potatoes or boiled turnips.
Note: Cornish pilchard fishing was depicted in Season 1, Episode 4 of Poldark. Clifftop watchmen, called 'huers' scanned the sea, looking for dark masses of pilchard shoals (schools). When one was spotted, the huer shouted "Hevva!" to alert the fishing crews, who would then row out and capture masses of pilchards in nets. The harvested fish were heavily salted and kept in barrels, weighed down, to help preserve them as food for several months.
Tin Miner's Mid-day Meals
In earlier times, miners didn't take food or drink underground. But in the 1800's, men began taking a "kag" of water and a snack like "hoggan" (a heavy cake of barley flour and water, baked without leavening) - a dense cake that might kill a man who hadn't gotten accustomed to it as a youth.
Eventually, the "Cornish pasty" (sounds like "last-y") became the preferred mid-day meal for tin miners. It is a baked, half-moon shaped pastry of wheat or barley four, filled with diced meat and vegetables like potatoes and turnips. Its distinctive crimped edge gave miners a convenient hand-hold while eating it.
The crimped crust as a hand-hold also protected miners from ingesting arsenic. (Tin and copper ores contain high levels of arsenic, and the hands of miners would be covered with it.) After eating the pasty, the crimped crust could be discarded.
Eight Interesting Facts about Cornish Tin Mining:
1. Cornish mining can be traced back to the Bronze Age, 2100 BC.
Bronze is an alloy of tin and copper, and both metals were mined in Cornwall. The ancient Greek historian, Diodorus Siculus, described tin mining in Cornwall and the foreign trade of tin in his historical masterpiece, Bibliotheca historica:
"The people of the promontory of Britain called Belerion [west Cornwall] are friendly... and, from their contact with foreign merchants, are civilized in their way of life. They carefully work the ground from which they extract the tin."
2. Cornish tin mining methods changed over the centuries.
From the Bronze Age to approx. 1400 AD - Surface mining called "Streaming"
When alluvial deposits of cassiterite were found in river valleys, nearby streams were diverted to wash away the debris, leaving behind the heavier cassiterite ore. It was then pulverized and smelted at high temperatures in clay pits to extract the tin.
1400's - 1600's AD - Shallow mining
As riverbed deposits grew scarcer, miners began digging shallow underground shafts to mine veins of cassiterite ore embedded in bedrock.
1600's - 1900's AD - Underground mining
In 1689, Thomas Epsley introduced the use of gunpowder to shatter dense rock like granite. Blasting allowed miners to go deeper underground to follow the veins of tin and copper ore. (Tin and copper ores are often found together.)
3. A steam engine designed in Cornwall - the "Cornish engine" - allowed access to deeper ore veins and helped improve water drainage and prevent flooding.
By the mid-1700's, steam engines were being used to pump out the underground water in deep mines. But in the early 1800's, Richard Trevithick developed a steam engine even more powerful than James Watt's improved steam engine. This "Cornish engine" used higher-pressure steam more efficiently and retained a greater amount of the energy it generated.
Below is a photo of an abandoned 'Engine House' and its chimney stack (built to house a Cornish engine). It was part of the "South Phoenix Mine," near Liskeard, Cornwall.
4. Cornish tin miners were given specific rights by the Crown
In 1201, King John granted a "Charter of Liberties to the Tinners of
Cornwall and Devon." This was known as the "Stannary Charter," ('stannum' is the Latin word for 'tin'). It established the legal rights of tin miners - "tinners." It also created a separate Stannary government, with its own taxation system, law courts and Parliament.
In 1305, King Edward I granted Cornwall its own "Stannary Charter," strengthening the rights of Cornish tinners to dig for tin on all land, public or private. The taxes on tin were levied by Cornwall's Stannary system and then sent to the Duke of Cornwall.
5. By the late 1800's, Cornwall's mines were producing more than half the arsenic in the world.
Arsenic is created as a by-product of processing copper and tin. (Since it is so poisonous, miners often applied a layer of clay to their skin as protection.) Arsenic was used in making clear glass, wood preservatives, insecticides, ammunition, pigments and dyes.
6. Many Cornish mines are called 'Wheals."
Often the word 'wheal' precedes the name of a Cornish tin mine. 'Wheal' is the Cornish word for 'a place of work.' The two fictional mines in the BBC Series Poldark were called 'Wheal Leisure' and 'Wheal Grace.'
7. Cornish tin mines extended for miles underground and had several levels.
'Wheal Owles' and the iconic engine houses on the clifftop at Botallack, Cornwall were used to represent 'Wheal Leisure' in Poldark. In the 1850's, work began at this mine, extracting tin and minerals. At its height, it had 29 miles of levels and 11 steam engines at the site.
Besides walking miles to and from the mines, Cornish miners often had to walk long distances through cramped underground shafts to get to the current work site at the mine.
I took this photo (above) as I walked through a cramped tunnel 260 feet long, while touring the Geevor Tin Mine. I had to hunch over, and watch my step on the uneven ground. This tunnel was well-lit, but it would have been hazardous to walk through this dark tunnel with only the dim light of candles or miner's lanterns.
8. Cornwall has a new mining opportunity - Lithium mining.
Lithium is a key component in electric cars and other rechargeable batteries used in smartphones, tablets and laptops. Plans are in the works to open mines in Cornwall to extract this valuable metallic element.
My Cornish Ancestors
Being in Cornwall, the land of my family, was an emotional experience for me. It is a beautiful place, with quaint towns and a stunning coastline of rugged cliffs and ocean views. Touring the Geevor Tin Mine and its museum helped me to understand the difficult working conditions my ancestors might have endured.
In the mid-to-late 1800's, Cornwall's tin and copper mining industry began declining. Cornish miners were known for their expertise in hard rock mining, and many were recruited by mine owners in North America.
My great, great grandfather Nicholas and his brother Thomas emigrated to Canada, to work in the copper mines in Ontario. A few years later, both brothers and their families moved to Michigan's upper peninsula (UP), to work in the copper mines in Keweenaw County.
Many Cornish mining families settled in Michigan's UP. I ate my first "Cornish pasty" in the UP of Michigan. It was baked by my great aunt, according to the family recipe.
In my Blog next month, on November 5th, I will spotlight the Cornish pasty - its interesting history and its varied recipes.
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Mary Dodge Allen is currently finishing her sequel to Hunt for a Hometown Killer. She's won a Christian Indie Award, an Angel Book Award, and two Royal Palm Literary Awards (Florida Writer's Association). She and her husband live in Central Florida. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and Faith Hope and Love Christian Writers.
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