#stagnes — Public Fediverse posts

Victorian Cornwall’s leading sector: metal mining

There was no question about Cornwall’s leading economic sector in the mid-1800s. In terms of income, productivity and employment it was metal mining. The early 1860s marked the peak of Cornish mining. Deep copper mining had broken out of its eighteenth-century heartland west of Truro in the 1810s, first to mid-Cornwall in the 1810s and then further east in the 1830s and 40s, where it joined earlier smaller tin mining ventures. At the same time, the predominantly tin mining concerns of the St Agnes, Helston and St Just districts continued to employ a large number of miners.

In 1861 30 per cent of men aged 15 to 69 were enumerated in the census of that year as working on and in mines. This includes surface workers, enginemen, mine smiths, mine clerks and others, as well as the iconic underground tributer. A map of the relative distribution of these men clearly indicates the districts most affected by mining – west Cornwall from Perranporth to St Just, mid-Cornwall around the Hensbarrow granitic outcrop and east Cornwall (where it had spilled over the Tamar into west Devon in the 1840s.)

Few of Cornwall’s 212 parishes were wholly untouched by mining; a large block in north Cornwall made up the main non-mining district while other non-mining parishes were to be found along the south coast. But of the over 29,000 miners in 1861 over a quarter (7,453) lived in just four parishes – Camborne, Illogan, Redruth and Gwennap. These four comprised the Central Mining District. They accounted for more than twice the number of miners at work in east Cornwall for example, the relative importance of the latter being exaggerated by the lower population density of the area.

The role of mining is therefore perhaps better illustrated by a map of the absolute number of miners, which more clearly portrays the mining districts of Cornwall. Here it is.

#Camborne #Gwennap #Helston #Illogan #miners #Redruth #StAgnes #StJust

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