Dave,
As Albyn suggests, contemorary working clothes would be worn by miners.
Specialist attire would be outside the financial reach of the common miner -
even protective headgear was uncommon until the latter half of the 20th
century. The illustrations in Pettus, 1670, between pages 34 and 35, show
surface workers wearing contemporary clothes of the period. As to tools -
underground, in the 1640s, before the use of explosives, steel tipped picks,
wedges (plug and feathers), hammers and iron tipped shovels were used for
breaking ground, much as they were in the late medieval period. See the Peak
District Mines Historical Society Bulletins (now Mining History) and
articles by Jim Rieuwerts for information on rock breaking techniques.
The best information will come from museum collections and well provenanced
artefacts from the period. A good starting point might be the specialist
mining museums at Earby and Matlock Bath.
As to the Cornish as a source of information on mid 16th century mining
practice - they were not necessarily the centre of excellence they later
became, having only just moved from working placer deposits to hard rock
mining - although Hamilton Jenkin does give some descriptions, with at least
one drawn from a Mendip source. For contemporary expertise you should look
to mid Wales and the lead producing fields like the Derbyshire Peak and
parts of Yorkshire. For the political involvement of the Peak miners of the
period see Wood, Andy. The Politics of Social Change; The Peak Country
1520-1770, (Cambridge, 1999), particularly pp. 286-294.
Peter
________________________________________________________
Dr Peter Claughton,
Blaenpant Morfil, nr. Rosebush, Clynderwen, Pembrokshire, Wales SA66 7RE.
Tel. 01437 532578: Fax. 01437 532921: Mobile 07831 427599
University of Exeter - SHiPSS
(Centre for South Western Historical Studies)
Co-owner - mining-history e-mail discussion list
See http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/files/mining-history/ for details
Mining History Pages - http://www.exeter.ac.uk/~pfclaugh/mhinf/
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