> Why did people leave Stafford and go to Spain?
> And to where in Spain would they have gone? I have been given Linares,
> Almaden (?), Rio Tinto and Leon as possible places because of the
> mining.
> I presume they would have had to sail to Spain.
> To where would they sail in the 1840s - from what port (since they lived
> in
> Stafford) to what port in Spain?
One track is the fact that many Staffordshire mine and iron specialists went
to South Wales during the iron boom of the late 18th/early 19th centuries.
When iron ore started to be brought into South Wales as the local supplies
ran out, close ties were established with Spain (many Spanish workers,
principally from the Bilbao region, came to work in South Wales). So it is
quite conceivable that Staffordshire men followed this track too. Cardiff
would be the port in this case, or Newport.
Ian
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