Miner poet leads readers on a 'below grass' trail of discovery

Wednesday, October 15, 2008, 11:00

"CORNWALL'S mining heritage is very much in the public eye these days and a great deal of information about it is available in many forms.

If you find some of this information a bit technical, then a new book – A Family Guide To Mining In Central Cornwall – may be just what you are looking for.

Written by Lucia Crothall, it is a clever concept. Lucia tells the story of Cornish mining in the 19th century as if seen through the eyes of the young miner and poet John Harris. And she brings the story up to the present day. Lucia's easily understood text is complemented by delightful illustrations by Emma Metcalfe.

The book invites the reader to "join the young miner and poet John Harris as he leads you on an exciting journey through Cornwall's mining heritage".

John Harris was born in October 1820 at Six Chimneys on Bolenowe Carn, near Camborne. He started work at Dolcoath Mine at the age of 10 – for a number of months before that he had worked at a tin stream – and stayed in the mining industry for 24 years, until he found employment as a Scripture Reader at Falmouth. All the time he was writing poetry, resulting in 16 published books of verse. He died in 1884.
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In her new book, Lucia Crothall has John Harris inviting readers to "follow in my footsteps as I tell you my own real-life story and the amazing tale of Cornish mining – of death and disease, challenges and innovations, successes and failures".

In 1830, at the age of 10, John is taken to the mine by his father.

While his father goes underground, John stays on the surface where he pushes barrows full of ore from 6am to 6pm.

"My hands get so raw that skin comes off them and my arms get so heavy that I can't feel them."

He tells how he almost faints in the heat in summer and gets drenched in the rain in winter. And of how "other boys, girls and bal maidens, 30 or more in a row, break the stone down with hammers and pick out the best ore from the waste at picking tables".

As they worked, they sometimes sang hymns to help pass the time.

"Our skin and clothes," says young John, "get stained red with the ore so that we look as if we've been squirted all over with tomato soup."

At the age of 13, John was to start work underground. A series of diary dates record major events and statistics in Cornish mining history up to the present day. We learn that in 1842 some 7,500 children and young people were employed in Cornish mines. That in 1845 buildings were erected where miners coming up from their shift could have a hot bath, dry their wet clothes and enjoy a bowl of hot soup. Such buildings were known as a "dry" and came into being through the efforts of Lady Basset, daughter of Lord de Dunstanville, a wealthy mine owner.

On a personal note, we find that John Harris had to live off 10p a day for most of 1845, the year in which he got married. Things improved in 1846. "I hit the jackpot. I find a rich vein of ore and earn a colossal £200."

With this he was able to build his own house, a task taking "two years of working early mornings and late nights".

He describes how there was no water or comfy furniture and only candle light, but how it was "much nicer than living in Camborne with its streets full of waste and water".

The diary dates also chart how the mines started to close down in the 1860s and how many Cornish miners emigrated to find work in areas where mineral extraction was cheaper. Of how the tin boom came to an end with the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 and the demise of South Crofty in 1998. Of the granting of World Heritage Site status to the Cornish mining landscape in 2006 and the creation of seven mining trails in 2008.

You will not want to walk these trails without a copy of this book in your pocket. It contains many fascinating nuggets of information presented in an entertaining way.

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