A history of Cornish Tin mining
Why was tin important? To begin with, tin was initially utilised in the city of Ur, today known as Iraq in modern-day southern Mesopotamia around 3500 BC. Bronze, an alloy of tin and copper, was used by the Iranians. Tin was used for the first time in Turkey. Turkey was the first place where it was discovered and where it was mined and processed. When tin is mined, it transforms into a silvery metal known for its corrosion resistance. Over time its worth increased and it was a valuable commodity. Perhaps the most important use of tin, historically, has been to make bronze. So when an abundance of readily available tin was discovered in Southwest England., the game was on. Human’s were determined to obtain it.
Many years later and the vast and haunting Cornwall and West Devon’s mining landscape has been included as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2006. The site includes the remains of more than 200 Cornish engine houses, as well as mines, harbours, tramways, and towns and villages with distinctive terraced miners’ cottages and mine-owners’ country houses, all of which provide a glimpse into a time when metal mining provided the raw materials for Britain’s Industrial Revolution and pioneered far-reaching technological developments. Combined, they represent the heyday of local copper, tin, and arsenic production. Two-thirds of the world’s copper supply was produced in Cornwall in the early nineteenth century, and subsequently, half of the world’s arsenic need was satisfied here. Cornwall also produced about two million tonnes of tin, the most of which was produced in the nineteenth century.
Deep mining for copper and tin transformed Cornwall and west Devon’s landscapes dramatically in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It is evident from the ruins of mines and other industrial structures as well as new cities and villages that there was a time of rapid industrial expansion and prolific innovation. Together, they demonstrated the skill and success of early, large-scale, industrialised non-ferrous hard-rock mining in an interconnected and highly readable manner. The Cornish and West Devon mines’ technology and infrastructure allowed them to dominate copper, tin, and later arsenic production around the world, and they had a significant impact on global mining practises in the nineteenth century.
Aside from bronze, tin’s greatest contribution to humanity may have been the humble can. The can’s roots can be traced back to the recurrent difficulty of feeding an army on the move.
Due to decreasing tin prices in 1998, The last mine – South Crofty- near Camborne closed. Because of their close-knit communities, many Cornwall’s mining remnants have been revived as tourist attractions and memorials to the people who lived there.
Why is there mining in Cornwall
Tin was one of the first metals mined in the United Kingdom. The alloy bronze was found by Chalcolithic metal workers by adding a tiny percentage of tin (5–20 percent) to molten copper. Copper is not as hard as the alloy. It is thought that tin mining began in Britain as early as 2000 BC, with a flourishing trade in tin with the civilizations of the Mediterranean establishing itself by 3500 BC. Tantalizing the Mediterranean economy at an early stage, tin’s strategic role in making bronze weapons pulled Britain’s south west into the fold. Pewter was later made with tin as well.
Metal traders from the eastern Mediterranean were once thought to have stopped in Cornwall, but this view has shifted over the past century, with Timothy Champion noting in 2001 that “The direct archaeological evidence for the presence of Phoenician or Carthaginian traders as far north as Britain is non-existent. A location for the Cassiterides, or “Tin Islands,” first mentioned by Herodotus has been offered.
Mining has been going on in Cornwall since the Bronze Age and the earliest method of extracting tin was to stream it from river valleys or open cast mining. Trade between Cornwall and northern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean is supported by archaeological evidence. Cornish tinners were well-known in mediaeval times, and their industry was subject to special taxes, with unique privileges granted by the Royal Charter and mining practises based on Stannary law that took into account customary traditions, as Cornwall and Devon provided Britain’s only indigenous tin resources.
After the 1540s, Cornwall’s production grew quickly, and Devon’s production was only about 10% to 11% of Cornwall’s. They didn’t make a lot of money for the Crown in the 16th century, so they were put on hold under the Privilege of Parliament Act 1512. The first Crockern Tor stannary parliament in Devon was held in 1494. The last one was held in 1748, and it was the last one in the county. At Combe Martin, there are several old silver mines on the eastern ridge. There are still some signs of tunnels and a wheelhouse that was used to lift ore from the mine. People who make the Crown Jewels use silver from Combe Martin, which is found in many of the items.
It was around the 16th century when open-cast mining was used to get tin again. German miners who knew how to use the tools were hired. A Somerset man named Thomas Epsley came up with a way to blast the very hard granite rock away. He used gunpowder with quill fuses to do this. It changed the way hard rock mining was done. It could be done in one shot with a pick. There was a third boom in the 1800s when shafts were dug to get the ore out.
Surface ore however did not last. And deep underground they had to go. Tin and other metals are found in what are locally called lodes, which are nearly vertical slabs of rock in which metals can be discovered. Engineers, ideas, and machinery were born out of the challenges of mining hard rock. Cornishman Richard Trevithick famously developed the Cornish high-pressure steam engine in 1800, following technological advances by Thomas Newcomen, James Watt, and Matthew Boulton. This engine was used to pump water out of mines, hoist ore to the surface, and crush rock to begin processing the valuable ore. The Cornish beam engine houses, which originally numbered about 3,000, are the distinctive remains of this industry.
Safety Last
At their height, mines employed about a quarter of the Cornish population. “Gook” caps (large hats) were the sole protection from the weather and debris that mothers and daughters had to wear while working in the “grass,” hammering ore into smaller shards, “at grass” (above ground). Underground, workers risked rock falls, blasts, drowning, and machinery accidents; to live to be 30 or 40 years old was a good fortune. As far as Cornish mining accidents go, The Levant accident of 1919 was by far the worst. A failure of the man-engine, which was used to raise and lower workers into the mine, caused the accident, which occurred at approximately 3 p.m. on Monday, October 20. 31 people lost their lives
Growth and Decline
During its peak in the second half of the 19th century, the South Caradon Copper Mine, located 1 kilometre southwest of Caradon Hill transmission station, was the largest copper mine in the United Kingdom. The base of the hill is littered with abandoned copper and tin mines. As a prominent port in Cornwall by the mid-19th century, Looe’s main industries were the exportation of native tin, arsenic, and granite, as well as a strong fishing and boatbuilding industry. As a result of the deadly nature of dust containing arsenic, employment at Callington’s arsenic mine was extremely hazardous. Despite several safety precautions, many workers died in their 30s and 40s. As a former hub of lead mining, Menheniot currently sits amidst abandoned pits and engine buildings. Menheniot was the epicentre of a mining boom that lasted until the 1870s when lead seams were discovered there in the 1840s. During this time, the population grew by a factor of two. The mining heritage of Kit Hill Country Park is rich. Tin, silver, copper, and tungsten were among the metals mined. There were four major mines in Kit Hill: Kit Hill Summit Mines (which contained a windmill near the existing stack), East Kit Hill Mine (which worked from 1855 to 1909), and Hingston Down Mine (which may have originated in the 17th century, it closed in 1885).
Cornish mining was at its peak in the 19th century before foreign competition reduced copper and tin prices to levels that rendered extraction of Cornish ore unattractive. This was marked by the copper prices crash of the 1860s. But miners do not fade away and up to 500,000 individuals took up opportunities worldwide during “the Great Migration” (1815–1920) and six million people today are descended from migratory Cornish mine workers. The death nail came when Coors Brewery developed the first aluminium can in the mid-20th century, ending tin’s glory. Aluminium quickly replaced tin and steel because it is lighter, more recyclable, and less expensive.
Places of Notes
There are ten regions in the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape. Among the locations are abandoned mines, mill ruins, a port, and homes once held by miners.
The Geevor Tin Mine near Pendeen, is the country’s most well-preserved mining site. Pick up a map and a hard hat at the reception desk, then stop for a cup of coffee at the Count House Café, which overlooks the sea. One of the best ways to obtain an overview of Cornish mining history is to visit Wheal Mexico, Geevor’s 20th-century tin mining infrastructure, and the excellent Hard Rock Museum.
On the cliffs near Land’s End, the Levant Mine and Beam Engine is a National Trust property. About 500 people were engaged at the Levant Mine by the middle of the 19th century, including nearly 200 children. Copper and tin were the primary minerals mined, and the shafts sank more than a mile below the surface. The functional beam engine is the site’s most notable feature. Coal was originally used to power the steam engine, which was installed in 1840 and remained operational until the mine was shut down in 1930. Nowadays, every 15 minutes, the engine is started up and ready to go. Volunteers are on hand to answer any questions you may have during a tour of the site. There are numerous places to stop and enjoy a picnic while taking in the sights along the shore and out to sea.
The Ding Dong mine, which is said to be one of the oldest in Cornwall, is said to have been visited by Joseph of Arimathea, a tin trader, and that he brought a young Jesus to speak to the miners. There is no evidence to back this up. This location appears to have been used for mining from antiquity. 100 persons worked at Wheal Malkin; the eastern veins were exhausted by 1850. An increase in workers by 1870 was apparently a success, as production migrated to the western part of the settlement around Greenburrow, Bolitho and the Old Wheal Boys Shaft. Saturday 7 July 1877 saw the last underground shift worked at Ding Dong Mine.
In addition to being one of Cornwall’s most important historic sites, the Poldark Tin Mine features what are thought to be the oldest complete mine workings in Great Britain that are open to the public. As far back as prehistoric times, alluvial tin mining has been documented in this area. The mine employed about 900 people in the Wendron Valley and adjacent areas during its height in the 1830s.
The King Edward Mine is a truly unique and remarkable place. There have been no changes to the surrounding terrain because it was used to teach real mining skills from 1897 to 2005, and the site has been in continuous operation for much longer than any of the other tin mines. The site has been accorded Grade II* designation by English Heritage because they believe it is of national significance.
The museum on site has been recognised for its accuracy, and has earned numerous honours for it. Because the original machinery is still in good working order, it’s easy to picture how things could have been back in the Edwardian era.
Wheal Coates tin mine, one of Cornwall’s most beautiful and iconic mines, is perched on the cliffs above Chapel Porth beach in St Agnes. Most of the remains at Wheal Coates date from 1870, however the area has been inhabited since the mediaeval period.
Located in Pool, South Crofty Mine produced tin and copper metals. It is a 400-year-old mine with a depth of 3,100 feet (910 m) and a length of about two and a half miles, which has yielded over 40 lodes of gold. Full-scale mining at South Crofty began in the mid-17th century, however evidence of mining in the area dates as far back as 1592. After a downward spiral that began in earnest in 1985, the mine finally came to an end in 1998, when it was forced to close its doors. As of October 2017, a new management team is working to revive the mine. You cannot access this mine but a drive past gives you a glimpse of modern mining.
In recent years the TV series Poldark has boosted the local economy and reminded everyone of the rich history beneath their feet in Cornwall.