Bal Maiden - Background

Background

For at least 3,000 years from antiquity until the late 20th century mining of tin and copper played a significant part in the economy of Cornwall. Cornwall, the northern part of Iberia and the Ore Mountains (the modern border between the Czech Republic and Germany) are the only places in Europe in which major tin deposits are found near the surface. As tin is an essential ingredient of bronze, Cornwall was of great economic significance in Bronze Age Europe despite its relative isolation. Mining by the Roman Empire led to the Iberian mines becoming depleted by the 3rd century AD, leaving Cornwall and neighbouring Devon the most significant sources of tin in Europe. While it appears from surviving evidence that after the decline of the Bronze Age civilisations copper production ceased in Cornwall, it seems that the tin mines were in continuous operation throughout the Roman period and the Middle Ages.

The primitive early mines of Cornwall and Devon probably were operated by local extended families, with the men, women and children all working. Men and boys probably worked both above the surface and below ground, and women and girls worked only above ground; there is no archaeological evidence for women and children working underground in Bronze Age Britain, although some mines from the period contain tunnels so small that only children or very short adults could have worked in them.

At some point between the death of Cnut the Great in 1035 and the death of Edward the Confessor in early 1066, the independent Kingdom of Cornwall was annexed by the neighbouring Kingdom of Wessex, itself a part of the Kingdom of England. In late 1066 Cornwall, along with the rest of the lands under the control of the English king, was conquered by the Normans and came under the control of William the Conqueror. By the late 12th century the metal mines were brought under the control of the Crown; operation of the tin mines was devolved to the Lord Warden of the Stannaries, and mining of other metals was directly controlled by the Crown as Mines Royal.