The Redruth RD of the nineteenth century included within its bounds the central mining district. Named such because of its geographical centrality in the emerging eighteenth century industrial region of west Cornwall, the central mining district was also the most prolific producer of tin and copper ore from the early 1700s onwards. Fittingly, after the other mining districts had all expired, the central mining district was home to Cornwall’s last working mine at South Crofty, from where sporadic claims of the imminent restarting of underground mining continue to emanate.
The central mining district was also Cornwall’s central emigration district. Just over four of every ten of the boys born in the Redruth RD around 1850 who feature in the Victorian Lives database were working overseas by the 1890s. Given that this RD also had the highest number of untraced individuals – most likely to be single movers whose death cannot be traced – that proportion of migrants is very likely to be an underestimate.
The registration district also displayed a marked difference across the genders. Although the number of women who emigrated was above the Cornish average (21 per cent from Redruth RD compared with 15 per cent from Cornwall as a whole), it was not remarkably so. In fact women from the St Austell RD were more likely to go overseas.
The contrast between male and female emigration from the Redruth RD might suggest that the migration of single miners from the district was greater than from elsewhere. Moreover, it might also hint at the possibility of higher return migration or at least the intention to return to wives and families left at home.
Where did the emigrants go? Over half of both men and women from the registration district were located in the United States in the 1890s and another third in Australia. The proportions for women were slightly more even with a greater percentage in Australia, although the numbers involved mean that not too much significance should be read into this.
Cornish studies resources 