Cornish Tin Heritage
For a very long time, an ancient time, people in this area have dug the ground. The evidence is clear, at one time this area, this strange shaped leg in the South west corner of England, was at the forefront of the industrial revolution, a source of cultural vision. In the 1840`s the region was producing half of the world's copper and tin and also Cornwall's arsenic production led the world.
Rock drills here bored the holes that made crucial inroads into mining development, and passed on this knowledge to the mining areas of South Africa for gold exploration
Steam ships and engines and pump houses were all born here, maybe not all invented, but certainly well developed. Cornwall was the export infrastructure to many other countries that took away the ore and developed for themselves.
This is just a great story about people who pioneered this area and has fascinated me, particularly when I went to see Waihi, here in New Zealand, and met people who were descended from Cornwall mining families. Some of these same families were then thrust into the horrors of war, building tunnels under the enemy's lines, the famous Arras tunnels in France.
Tens of thousands lost in the family histories of us all.
The way they lived are captured in memories while other evidence is imprinted in the landscape, buildings , churches and places of worship, grand houses, showing signs of wealth. Small farms worked by the Miners.
All this was cutting edge technology at that time which quickly spread global links to other mining families and created a huge network of mining interest in other parts of the world as people migrated. Where did the fascination come from, it's not really my part of the World. Well the story of the sinking of the SS Liverpool in 1863, during a dense fog, and after a collision with another vessel. She was carrying a huge cargo of Cornish tin ingots. Thankfully not a life was lost but both sank, and the cargo remained untouched in Davie Jones locker for One hundred and thirty eight years.
The wreck was again surveyed and it was able to raise the ingots and clean them up and now they are in great demand to make new pieces of Cornish Tin, saving for prosperity this legacy of the coast
Would these miners who worked so hard to extract the ore then be so proud of this piece of history that lives on
Once a miner, always a miner
Rock drills here bored the holes that made crucial inroads into mining development, and passed on this knowledge to the mining areas of South Africa for gold exploration
Steam ships and engines and pump houses were all born here, maybe not all invented, but certainly well developed. Cornwall was the export infrastructure to many other countries that took away the ore and developed for themselves.
This is just a great story about people who pioneered this area and has fascinated me, particularly when I went to see Waihi, here in New Zealand, and met people who were descended from Cornwall mining families. Some of these same families were then thrust into the horrors of war, building tunnels under the enemy's lines, the famous Arras tunnels in France.
Tens of thousands lost in the family histories of us all.
The way they lived are captured in memories while other evidence is imprinted in the landscape, buildings , churches and places of worship, grand houses, showing signs of wealth. Small farms worked by the Miners.
All this was cutting edge technology at that time which quickly spread global links to other mining families and created a huge network of mining interest in other parts of the world as people migrated. Where did the fascination come from, it's not really my part of the World. Well the story of the sinking of the SS Liverpool in 1863, during a dense fog, and after a collision with another vessel. She was carrying a huge cargo of Cornish tin ingots. Thankfully not a life was lost but both sank, and the cargo remained untouched in Davie Jones locker for One hundred and thirty eight years.
The wreck was again surveyed and it was able to raise the ingots and clean them up and now they are in great demand to make new pieces of Cornish Tin, saving for prosperity this legacy of the coast
Would these miners who worked so hard to extract the ore then be so proud of this piece of history that lives on
Once a miner, always a miner