Mining - a great source of wealth for the Edgcumbes
by Dr Malcolm Cross
The Edgcumbe family prospered hugely from the mining industry that came to play such a big role in Cornwall and Devon from the 13th century onwards. Not only did the family earn revenue from owning the land on which mines were dug, they also supplied the timber necessary for the infrastructure of the mines and for heating the furnaces to allow for the processing of the ore. Further income was generated by ownership the transport system and by control of the Stannary Courts, through which all the ore had to pass for weighing and taxation.
The prodigious wealth that the Edgcumbes earnt from mining rested upon the labour of the men and women working in the mines. The men working down the shafts toiled for long hours in appalling and highly dangerous conditions. Above ground, women were paid a pittance for processing the ore – usually working 9 hour days, 6 days a week in all weathers.
Photo of miners and balmaidens from Dolcoath Mine, Camborne, c. 1900
The Edgcumbe family was deeply involved in silver and lead mining around their estate at Cotehele from the 13th century. These mines also extended into the Bere Peninsula where the silver mines were owned by the Crown. Because of royal investment these mines were technologically advanced. They extended during the medieval period (c. 1290-1500) with the lodes running east-west in an approximate north-south line down the middle of the peninsula between the two rivers (Tamar and Tavy). Under these circumstances, the Edgcumbes generated their initial financial return largely through smelting operations at Weir Quay and Calstock, the latter being closer to the supply of timber for the furnaces.
Although closeness to the monarch of the day eventually generated rich returns for the family, it was not without its conflicts. One reason why Sir Richard Edgcumbe of Cotehele was so enthusiastic about the Lancastrian cause in the War of the Roses (1485) was his opposition to Yorkist attempts to control silver mining in the South-West, initially through Richard Plantagenet (1411-1460) and later his son, the Duke of Gloucester, who became Richard III. Silver mining was largely abandoned on the Bere Peninsula by the end of the 15th until the 19th century when the advent of steam-powered pumps allowed the exploration of deeper seams. By this time, the South Hooe Lead Mine was the most famous silver-lead mine on the peninsula. This was on land that came to Richard Edgcumbe through his marriage to Sophia Hobart, whose father had inherited this and other lands in Devon and Cornwall and given it to her on her betrothal (see Rippon et al. 2009).
“I have been underground three years... The ladders are very steep and it is hard work climbing them when we are tired. I have often felt sick and had a pain in my chest after climbing.”
Henry Thomas, aged 15, quoted in Barham 1842
Bal maidens wearing their protective ‘gooks’ (© Museum of Cornish Life)
Other mining by the family occurred on the Cotehele estate itself where copper lodes and later arsenic were exploited in the Danescombe Valley north of the house until 1842 when the 30-inch pumping engine was sold to the South Hooe mine to manage water seeping in from the nearby River Tamar. The greatest returns, however, for the Edgcumbe family occurred from the tin mines near St Austell. The most important of these was at Polgooth, two miles south-west of St Austell. The three most important lodes there were worked from the end of the 16th century. They were exceptionally profitable and in the 18th century the settlement was claimed to be the richest mine in the United Kingdom and the ‘greatest tin mine in the world’
By 1800, more than a 1000 people were employed at Polgooth, often working in appalling conditions. A 50-inch steam engine by Joseph Hornblower (1696-1762) was installed in 1727 to help remove water from the mine. Hornblower’s son, Jonathan, erected in 1784 a 58-inch steam engine built by Matthew Boulton and James Watt for the same purpose These two engineers were both ‘adventurers’ or shareholders in the mines which eventually reached depths of 180m (600 feet) before being abandoned in 1890.
'“[30 year old Richard Hellery] fell down a shaft across a piece of timber, and was taken up apparently lifeless. I was sent for, and directed his comrades to remove him to his house as quickly as possible. (In all mine accidents it is truly admirable to witness the care and attention paid by the miners to their wounded comrades; if there have been any existing animosity, the offended party is the foremost to render assistance.) As soon as he was carried home I gave directions that he should he put into a warm bed; and when I saw him again, which was a few minutes after they had put him into bed, he was perfectly insensible, and his respiration exceedingly difficult. I gave him a few tea-spoonsful of warm tea with a little brandy it, and had the abdomen, chest, and feet fomented with hot water, and remained with him until reaction took place. On examining him there were several deep cuts and bruises about the body and head; but the principal injury appeared to me to be in the lumbar vertebrae. I dressed his wounds, and bled him from the arm, and cupped him exactly over the injured part of the back, and extracted a good portion of blood; [other appropriate measures were employed.] I visited him three and four times a day during a fortnight, and he was insensible nearly the whole of that time, and his lower extremities were quite paralytic. [Active antiphlogistic means were used, and he] gradually recovered his recollection; I then allowed him a generous diet, and he has been, and is now, employed at the mine in good health, but with a partial paralysis of one leg.”
Report by Mr Pace, principal surgeon at the Fowey Consols, in Barham 1842
Another great addition to the tin and copper mining returns was Par Consols on Mount Edgcumbe land in the Parish of St Blazey. This was an early mine where the records are hard to find but between the 1830s and 1869 it produced more than 200,000 tons of ore, on each ton of which a royalty was payable to the agent for the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe. In 1855 a new lease was signed in partnership with the Carthew family of St Austell (famous for leasing land from Mount Edgcumbe for china clay extraction) that included a clause demanding a £4,000 additional charge at its commencement, a provision that the Mining Journal (29 December, 1855) called ‘unprecedented in the county of Cornwall’.
The distinction between owners and investors suited the Edgcumbes very well. They were paid a royalty, typically 1/15th of the value of all ore mined, regardless the value of the metal after smelting. This produced a significant but predictable income throughout the year. The risks, but potentially higher rewards, were borne by the investors or ‘adventurers’, who also met all the running costs. The ‘toll tin’, or that subject to the royalty paid to the ‘Lords of the Soil’, could amount to many thousands of pounds a year in large mines such as Polgooth.
“I have worked at the bal [mine] since I was nine years old. I break the tinstones with a hammer. It is very hard work, and my hands are often blistered and sore. In winter, our clothes are frozen on us with the cold.”
Elizabeth Phillips, aged 18, quoted in Barham 1842
This passivity meant the family did not need to worry too much about the dangers, challenges and problems associated with the mining process itself. They did, however, need to ensure the business always operated to their advantage. This they achieved in a number of ways. First, they controlled the shipping of the ore from the mine sites; initially from Cotehele Quay but later from other cargo facilities. Second, they supplied the timber used for the pit props but also for heating the smelters. Third, they ensured that they had close control of what happened thereafter. For example, the smelted tin could not be sold without being sent to a ‘Stannary Town’ such as Lostwithiel for the family’s mines around St Austell and Tavistock for the eastern mines. There the metal was weighed and taxed (‘coined’). This process was governed by the ‘Stannary Courts’ in which the Edgcumbe family normally retained a controlling interest. This was particularly true of Lostwithiel where the first Lord Edgcumbe built Edgcumbe House, a fine Georgian dwelling (c. 1750) on Fore Street to accommodate himself and other members of the family working on mining-related business. The house was a reworking of a 16th century property and immediately opposite was the Guildhall, also built by the Edgcumbes (c. 1740), where the Stannary Parliament met.
The Stannary Parliament, which consisted of six ‘stannators’ from each of the four Stannary districts, administered the Stannary Courts governed by Stannary law. Their powers were significant, since anyone defined as a ‘tinner’, including the owners and investors, was governed by these laws rather than those of Westminster on any matter related to their employment or engagement in mining. Tinners, for example, were exempted from normal taxation or terms and conditions of employment, all of which were the prerogative of the Stannary Courts. Male members of the Edgcumbe family dominated the courts. For example, Richard Edgcumbe (1st Baron, 1680-1758) served as Lord Warden of the Stannaries from 1734 to 1747 and occupied the linked role of Lieutenant of Cornwall from 1742 until his death 16 years later. He was also MP for Lostwithiel in 1734 and again in 1747 but, more importantly, he controlled all the Cornish seats and those who served in that borough only did so with his support. Earlier in the century he sat for Plympton Erle, as did his eldest son Richard ‘Dick’ Edgcumbe (1716-61) from 1742 and again for Lostwithiel (1747-54). In fact, his brother George (1st Earl), and his only son, another Richard (2nd Earl) all became Lieutenants of Cornwall, a role that encompassed keeping order on behalf of the monarch, including the supervising of the ‘tinners’ lives and employment.
“The air is very bad down there. Sometimes the candles will not burn, and then we are forced to go back. I have often had a headache from the bad air. Coming up the ladders makes my legs ache and my breath short."
William Trenbath, aged 14, quoted in Barham 1842
Throughout the 18th century, which was when the landscape at Mount Edgcombe was augmented with the features that came to define its pre-eminence, a highly significant proportion of the costs of so doing were derived from the family’s dominance of the mining industry in East Cornwall. This is not to argue that they made higher returns than anyone else, only that they extracted significant funds from ownership of important mines and tight control of mining operations. The record for sheer profitability occurred in the middle of the 19th century when Devon Great Consols, owned by the Duke of Bedford and located in the woods above Gunnislake became one of the most prosperous copper mines in Europe. It has been claimed that a £1 share would deliver dividends of £71 in these years while by the early 1850s annual ore values could exceed £100,000.
Women spalling (left), cobbing (centre), picking (right) and bucking (back right). Engraving of Dolcoath Mine by Thomas Allom circa 1831
The life of a tin or copper miner in these years was exceptionally hard and dangerous, often toiling in extreme temperatures and damp environments for excessively long shifts. Their women folk and young children, while not permitted underground, were also frequently engaged in ruinously hard labour. Their main task was processing the ore cut through hard rock from below ground. So-called ‘bal maidens’ (bal is Cornish for ‘mining’) would often start work at 10-12 years old and work at least until they married and often longer. Young children and older but unwell or disabled women would separate the ore from rubble (‘picking’), teenager girls would then riddle the ore to separate it by size and break the larger pieces with hammers. It would then be sorted again (‘cobbing’) to remove waste material before the older women would break the resultant ore with hammers (‘spalling’) until it was reduced to fine grains (‘bucking’) ready for smelting, after which they would carry it to a series of holding vessels ready for the kiln. It is claimed that an experienced ‘spaller’ would produce approximately a ton of reduced ore each working day, regardless of the weather conditions. The typical working day would last from 7.00 am until 5.00 pm in summer and from dawn to dusk in winter. They worked six days a week for piecework payment that by the mid-19th century ranged from about 4d (old pence) per day for the children to perhaps as high as 1s per day (5p) for adult women engaged in the skilled task of ‘bucking’.
“The dust from the stamps [crushing machinery] gets down our throats and makes us cough. I have a pain in my side almost every day from leaning over the bucking-iron [anvil used to smash ore].”
Mary Ann Rowe, aged 16, quoted in Barham 1842
The novelist, Elizabeth Hervey, described visiting copper and tin mines on a visit from Mount Edgcumbe to Cotehele in the summer of 1792. She writes of one:
“We alighted here to see a copper mine, but we only saw people employed in breaking the ore, amongst whom I perceived the loveliest girl imaginable – Mary Rose in all the bloom of 16 with regular features, blue laughing eyes, a well turned nose, a mouth rather wide, but full of smiles and very agreeable; with coral lips and white even teeth, cheeks like opening roses and brown glossy hair of a chestnut colour waving on a very white neck, which occasionally the wind discovered by blowing it aside. This girl had a huge mallet in her hand which I could scarcely lift, while she with the greatest facility heaved it incessantly to break the lumps of ore before her. Nine hours does she stand thus employed every other day, and her day of rest that intervenes she sits and picks the pieces."
Working days could extend in many cases by the walk to and from where their families lived, often three or four miles in each direction. Tuberculosis (consumption) was rife. Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial infection spread by airborne droplets. Miners working in close proximity for long hours in cramped, poorly ventilated conditions were particularly prone to contagion. Breathing in noxious dust generated by the mining process caused scarring of the lungs. Added to this were immune systems already weakened by a lack of sunlight - and accordingly vitamin D. Crowded living conditions were another factor. Miners’ cottages were frequently tiny, ill-heated and damp. A poor diet often consisting predominantly of potatoes and salted fish compromised immune systems still further. An unheralded aspect of water in mining areas was the pollution and unavailability of potable water for mine workers’ homes. TB was so common among people working in the mining industry that it was referred to as the ‘White Plague’, so-called because of the extreme paleness of its victims.
Bal maidens spalling, and loading ore wagon at Carn Brea 1880. Image reproduced from Harpers Magazine, 1881
Bal maidens were famous for their protective clothing. They wore ‘gooks’ or a wide bonnet that was intended to protect them from the weather and the debris that spalling and bucking inevitably generated. This was complemented by a hessian apron and leg coverings to add further protection to what was filthy work, particularly in the all-too-common wet weather. Only the larger mines, many of them in exposed locations on high ground such as Dartmoor or Bodmin Moor, had any rudimentary protection against wind and rain.
Dr Charles Barham, a medical practitioner working as a mine surgeon in the 1840s interviewed bal maidens for the Royal Commission (The Royal Commission for Inquiring into the Employment and Condition of Children and Young Persons in the Mines of Cornwall and Devonshire, 1842). Remarkably, he found that, although many suffered ill health throughout their working lives, most preferred the work at the mines to the available alternatives. These were domestic employment that demanded longer working hours or agricultural labour that generated even lower wages and seasonal fluctuations in availability. By the coast, the fishing industry was another source of employment. Women often known as ‘salt maidens’ would work for up to 12 hours a day, processing the catches of pilchards brought in by their menfolk and packing the fish into barrels of salt in pilchard cellars or ‘palaces’, but this work also was dependent on the season, weather conditions and the availability of fish.
References and further reading
Dewey, H. (1923) ‘Copper Ores of Devon and Cornwall’, Vol. XXVII in the Special Report on the Mineral Resources of Great Britain, British Geological Survey
Dines, H.G. (1956) The Metalliferous Mining Region of South-West England. Economic Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, reprinted 1988
Rippon, S., Claughton, P. and Smart, C. (2009) Mining in a Medieval Landscape: The Royal Silver Mines of the Tamar Valley, Exeter, University of Exeter Press
Watson, J.Y. (1843) A Compendium of British Mining, with Statistical Notices of the Principal Mines in Cornwall:The History and Uses of Metals, and a Glossary of the Terms and Usages of Mining, London