We have the same sort of local legend here in Devon, where French prisoners of war are traditionally supposed to have been used on the construction of the Tavistock Canal between 1803 and 1817, despite no written evidence from the period, and abundant evidence for the use of local miners. There is a similar story about the construction of stone field walls on the south Devon coast - how many French ex-soldiers and seamen would have been skilled in wall-building?! Needless to say there are no references from the Napoleonic period, and the person who propagated the myth was a later Victorian antiquarian. Several other authors who should have known better have blindly followed like sheep........
Basically, romanticism combined with an assumption that 'our people' would not have done hard backbreaking work if there were some foreigners or prisoners to do it for them, have combined to make a myth.
Robert Waterhouse
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Message Received: Oct 05 2006, 08:28 AM
From: "John Shoebridge"
To: [log in to unmask]
Cc:
Subject: Convicts in Mines
Hi Listers
To add a little to the subject.. Here in the Colony of New South Wales convict labour was utilised to establish the first Government coal mines in Newcastle and Hobart and when the former were let to private ownership (via the AA Coy) convicts were allocated to the firm.
They however soon found them to be inefficient and before long were assisting the immigration of a skilled workforce from Britain.
I have not heard of convicts being employed in metal mines in any of the Australian colonies.
Regards
John
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