We have seen that Cornish mines employed 30 per cent of the male labour force in 1861. But they also employed several thousand women on the surface, breaking up rock, washing it or picking out ore from rock. There were over 5,000 of these, known as bal maidens, across Cornwall, amounting to just under nine … Continue reading Bal maidens
Tag: work
The occupation Cornwall’s coat of arms forgot
In the 1930s Cornwall County Council officially adopted its coats of arms – the 15 bezants topped by a chough and flanked by a fisherman and a miner, the iconic male occupations of the nineteenth century. Yet, by that time this representation was already far from reality. While the chough was heading for temporary extinction, … Continue reading The occupation Cornwall’s coat of arms forgot
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