Most readers will have seen either the new series of Poldark,
or remember the old series with Robin Ellis and Angharad Rees as Ross and
Demelza. The old mine buildings at Pendeen, all part of the Botallack Mine, or
Crown Lands, lie at the very tip of the toe of Cornwall, and they have been
photographed more than any other major landmark in the area (with the possible
exception of the Land's End signpost).
The mine produced copper, tin and other minerals for several
hundred years but closed down in the early 1800s when the seams or reefs of
ore ran out.
My great-great-great-grandfather, one Stephen Harvey-James,
then took the lease on the mine and, with the help of investors, brought it back
into production, becoming the Purser of the Botallack in 1836 (i.e. the head of
the mine) and holding the position until his death in 1870. The post was then
taken on by his son, also Stephen, who saw the reefs finally run out and
production halted five years later. The elder Stephen was Purser when the
Prince and Princess of Wales visited the mine in 1865.
At its greatest the mine shafts ran to a depth of 250
fathoms, or 1500 feet, and up to a quarter of a mile out to sea. In the height
of a storm, the miners in the shafts and adits closest to the seabed could hear
the sound of boulders and stoned being rolled around and crashing against one
another in the waves.
The miners used to descend on wooden ladders, wearing leather
aprons and a leather or felt hat with a candle stuck to the brim. This was
their sole source of light. Miners did sometimes get lost in the maze of
tunnels. Deaths were frequent in all the Cornish mines. The concept of “health
and safety” didn't exist in those times.
The miners would hack out the ore and it would be taken up to the surface in buckets or tubs, using
blocks and tackles or pulleys in the earlier years. Steam power, when it
arrived, allowed the mines to work deeper, as they could pump out the water
that always leaked through the cracks in the rocks. When they developed
winches they could pull larger buckets of ore out. The ore would be spread out
on wooden tables near the head of the mine and broken up into small pieces by
teams of women. After the rubbish had been removed the finished ore would be
sent inland to the smelters.
Sporadic attempts have been made to restart production at the
mine but, even with the massive rise in the price of copper and tin, so far it
hasn't proved a practical proposition. R M Ballantyne, the late-Victorian author, wrote a book about
the mines called “Deep Down”. It's free on Kindle and provides a very real
picture of life in a mining community. Its also very readable.
Both the Stephen Harvey-James' mentioned here are buried in
St. Just Church – the churchyard there is FULL of James' in particular. Later
Harvey-James' tended to go into the Indian Civil service. My cousin, Justin is, I think, the last of the Harvey-James line.
John Jackson
John is a member of the New Writers Scheme and is some 75000
words into his first book, based on some family history. He Tweets and posts on
FaceBook incessantly.
Thank you, John for a most interesting article.
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