

A HISTORY OF CORNWALL 



new ordinances put in force by Prince Arthur 

 dealt among other subjects with the entering 

 of blowing-house marks and the swearing in 

 of blowers. 1 The buddle and the crazing-mill, 

 it is safe to say, figured also during this period 

 anterior to the reduction of the ore. The 

 molten metal was cast into slabs and blocks of 

 from 200 to 300 pounds each in weight. 2 



During the first half of the sixteenth century 

 many notable improvements were introduced 

 into the Cornish mines from the continent. 

 The English kings at an early period had been 

 impressed with the superior skill of the Germans 

 in mining and metallurgy, and repeated entries 

 are to be found in mediaeval state documents of 

 mineral concessions made to foreign workmen to 

 induce them to immigrate. 3 It may have been 

 the royal patronage given these foreigners, and 

 the report of their great skill, which induced Sir 

 Francis Godolphin, a large tin producer, to send 

 for the person mentioned by Carew as ' a Dutch 

 mineral man,' by whose aid were effected all 

 those important improvements which he notes in 

 the management of the great Godolphin tin 

 works.* These were probably the use of the 

 hydraulic stamp, already considerably employed 

 in the German mines, 8 various improvements in 

 the dressing of tin ore, and possibly the use of 

 charcoal for smelting instead of peat, which is 

 mentioned as the usual fuel in all stannary grants 

 of privilege. 6 



The first detailed account of tin dressing is 

 given by Carew. The ore was broken small 

 with hammers, 7 and then carried in carts, or on 

 horses, to a stamp-mill of three, and sometimes 

 six, iron-shod heads, driven by a water-wheel. 

 Previously the practice had been to stamp the 

 tin while dry, but wet stamps had by this time 

 come into use, with the result that only the 

 roughest part of the ore now had to go from 

 stamp to crazing-mill, 8 whereas under the dry 

 method all must go. The next operation was 

 completely distinctive, and no longer has a 

 parallel in Cornwall. The water, after it had 

 left the mill, was made to descend a series of 

 stages, at each of which it fell upon ' green turfe, 

 three or four feet square, and one foot thick.' 9 



1 Add. MS. 6713, fols. 101-104. 



3 Exch. K. R. Tin Coinage Rolls. 



3 'The Germans in the Stannaries,' by J. B. Cor- 

 nish, Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornw. xiii, pt. 4, 430434. 

 Atkinson, The Discoverie and Historic of the Gold Mynes 

 of Scotland, 18-20, 33. Watson, Compendium of Bri- 

 tish Mining, 58. Calvert, Gold Rocks of Great Britain 

 and Ireland, 52, 87, 98, 103, 109, 130, 131, 139, 

 144. S. P. Dom. Eliz. clxvii, 24 ; clxix, 1 6. 



* Carew, Survey of Cornwall (ed. 181 1), 42. 

 & Reyer, Zinn, 8 1. 



6 Chart. R. 36 Hen. Ill, m. 18 ; 33 Edw. I, m. 

 40, 41. 



7 Carew, Survey of Cornwall (cd. 1811), 39. 

 s Ibid. 39, 40. 



* Ibid. 40. See also Harl. MS. 6380, f. 106. 



Here the sandy ore was laid, and gently tossed to 

 and fro, so that the lighter particles of waste might 

 wash away, and the tin remain entangled in the 

 fibres. Finally the ore was washed ' in a 

 wooden dish, flat and round, being 2 feet over, 

 and having two handles fastened at the sides, by 

 which they softly shogge the same to and fro in 

 the water between their legges, as they sit over 

 it, until whatever of the earthie substance that . 

 was yet left be flitted away." 10 ' Some, of later 

 times,' says Carew, evidently referring to the 

 present practice of huddling, ' with a slighter in- 

 vention, and lighter labour, doe cause certain 

 boyes to stir it up and downe with their feete, 

 which worketh the same effect.' u 



The blowing-house, at which the smelting of 

 the ore finally took place, was a rude structure, 

 probably of rock and turf, with a thatched roof ; 

 the whole being so inexpensive that every few 

 years it was burned down in order to save the 

 particles of tin which the blast had driven up into 

 the thatch. 12 Here the prepared ore was made 

 into parcels, according to its quality, 13 and then 

 smelted on the hearth of the granite furnace by 

 a charcoal fire fed by a blast from a large pair of 

 bellows worked by a water-wheel. Abundant 

 evidence exists that the white tin produced in 

 this fashion was as pure in quality as that pro- 

 duced by the smelters of to-day. 14 



The slight accounts of tinning given by 

 Norden 15 and Childrey 16 substantiate Carew's 

 evidence in most details, and bring our account 

 down to the year 1660, at about which date we 

 may say that the modern period of tin mining 

 begins, as opposed to that of the Middle Ages. 

 In the course of the next few years began a 

 regime of improvements both in mining and in 

 smelting, which, closely following the great 

 impetus given the mines during the Common- 

 wealth by the abolition of the coinage, sent up 

 the production to 2,141 thousand-weight in 

 i6y3, 17 3,133 thousand-weight in i683, 18 4,800 

 thousand-weight in 1 7 1 o, 19 and by slow advances 

 to nearly double the latter figure in i837, 20 the 

 year in which the stannary system was remodelled. 



The first manifestation of this movement 

 seems to have been a series of improvements in 

 the dressing and smelting. According to the 

 anonymous writer already quoted, the ore 

 dressing by 1671 was done chiefly by boys. After 



10 Carew, Survey of Cornwall (ed. 181 1), 40. 



11 Ibid. Buddies, moreover, had already been men- 

 tioned in an Act of Henry VIII, to restrain tinners 

 from filling harbours with their silt (Stat. 23 Hen. 

 VIII, c. 8). 



11 Fuller, History of the Worthies of England (ed. 1 662), 

 195. 



13 Harl. MS. 6380, fol. 107. 

 " Cornish Mining, 13. 



15 Norden, Sfeculi Britanniae Pars (Cornwall), 13. 



16 Childrey, Britannia, 10. 



17 Receiver's View, 1673. '" Ibid. 1683. 



Ibid. 1710. 



Hunt, British Mining, 887. 



548 



