St Pinnock just to the west of Liskeard, is another of those east Cornish parishes touched by the mining boom of the 1840s and 50s. Although on the periphery of the lead mining district nonetheless a quarter of St Pinnock’s adult men in 1861 found employment in local mines, the majority no doubt at Herodsfoot … Continue reading St Pinnock: the mines open, the mines close
Category: mining
St Cleer: to stay or not to stay, that is the question
Whether to stay overseas or return to Cornwall was a question that many Cornish emigrants grappled with. Some seem to have found it very difficult to answer. The engine of St Cleer's long-forgotten industrial boom times was South Caradon mine. Its remains stand as brooding testimony to its short 50 year existence, to the riches … Continue reading St Cleer: to stay or not to stay, that is the question
St Agnes: travels and travails
The generation born around 1850 in St Agnes could have had little inkling of the economic disaster that lay in store for them. In 1851 71 per cent of the adult men of the parish worked on and in the tin and copper mines of the parish, one of the most intensive concentrations of miners … Continue reading St Agnes: travels and travails
Perranuthnoe: what to do when the bal is scat
A rural parish to the east of Penzance and Marazion, Perranuthnoe is now merely a place to ‘escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life … [an] ideal destination for a coastal retreat’, its heritage forgotten, its history unlamented. That’s a far cry from Victorian days when the parish was better known for its mines … Continue reading Perranuthnoe: what to do when the bal is scat
Menheniot: gateway to the world
Menheniot, to the south-east of Liskeard in east Cornwall, was a boom and bust parish of the mid-Victorian period. The population soared by almost 60 per cent in the 1840s before peaking in the early 1860s. It then fell by over a half in the next 30 years. People were attracted to the parish by … Continue reading Menheniot: gateway to the world
Luxulyan: the death of a way of life
Streaming from an illustration of 1556 In the mid-Victorian era the parish of Luxulyan contained one of the two districts (the other being Carnmenellis in the west) where a considerable number of men were given the older occupational term ‘tinner’ rather than miner, 'tinner' being an alternative term for a tin streamer. Moreover, tinners in … Continue reading Luxulyan: the death of a way of life
Liskeard: Victorian Cornwall’s boom town
In the 1830s copper ore reserves were discovered on Caradon Hill on the southern edge of Bodmin Moor near Liskeard. Soon after, in 1843, rich lead deposits were noted to the south east at Menheniot and to the south of the town. In consequence Liskeard became Cornwall’s boom town in the 1840s as several mines … Continue reading Liskeard: Victorian Cornwall’s boom town
Kea: when the fish and tin had gone, what did the Cornish boys do?
When South Crofty mine closed in the late 1990s some poignant graffiti appeared on a wall. So what did ‘Cornish boys’ do when the mines were no longer the obvious career route? One option, as we have seen, was to follow the mines overseas. Another was to stay put, or move within the UK, and … Continue reading Kea: when the fish and tin had gone, what did the Cornish boys do?
Some short lives at Illogan
Not every Cornish miner died young. On the other hand not many lived to their allotted span of three score years and ten. The median age of miners in Illogan parish in 1861 was just 24. This means that half the miners were younger than 24 and the other half older. The Cornish mines workforce … Continue reading Some short lives at Illogan
Gwennap: from riches to ruins
Mary Ann Kneebone was the daughter of John Kneebone, a mine engineman in 1861, and his wife Mary. They lived in the small hamlet of Trevarth in Gwennap, at that time one of Cornwall’s most populous parishes, home to over 10,500 people. Ten years earlier, John had been tin mining in Crowan a few miles … Continue reading Gwennap: from riches to ruins
Cornish studies resources 