In thinking out these mines, one needs to think of the market for the
calamine they produced. I think I am right in saying that the only
significant use for it was in producing brass (by a cementation process).
In this connection it is necessary to look to the chronology of the brass
works in England. This largely means the Elizabethan ones at Isleworth, and
those from the mid 17th century at Esher.
Another pointer may be the chronology of copper mining. I am not clear when
the operations of the Society of Mines Royal effectively ceased, but the
context is northern Europe being flooded with cheap copper from Falun in
Sweden. English copper smelting was resumed only about 1687, when Sir
Clement Clerke and associates started smelting it at Putney. We thus have a
long hiatus in copper mining, and probably a similar one in brass
production. The mining of the zinc ore then called calamine may be expected
to have a similar hiatus.
Peter King
49, Stourbridge Road,
Hagley,
Stourbridge
West Midlands
DY9 0QS
01562-720368
[log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: mining-history [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of
M J Shaw
Sent: 21 February 2007 22:47
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Early Modern Zinc Mines at Worle, Somerset
There are references to zinc mining in the seventeenth century in Sir John
Pettus, 'Fodinae Regalis' of 1670 (with a further edition some 20 years
later).
Michael Shaw
----- Original Message -----
From: "Keith Ramsey" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, February 19, 2007 5:38 PM
Subject: [MINING-HISTORY] Early Modern Zinc Mines at Worle, Somerset
> In their book on the industrial archeology of the Bristol area, Buchanan
> and Cossins mention that there were important zinc mines on Worle Hill
> in Somerset in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Very little
> seems to be known about these mines, and a query here some time ago
> produced little new information.
>
> For those who don't know, Worle is now a suburb of Weston-super-Mare,
> and there don't seem to be any surviving traces of mining activity. I'd
> always assumed that this was because the mines were very shallow and had
> been destroyed by later quarrying and building work, but I've recently
> begun to have doubts about this.
>
> I know that there were relatively deep zinc mines nearby at Shipham in
> the nineteenth century, and I've just discovered a letter from John
> Locke to Robert Boyle dated 5 May 1666 in which he refers to mines 30
> fathoms deep on the Mendips, although it's unclear whether they were
> lead or zinc workings. Can anyone point me towards any published work on
> early modern zinc mining which might help to shed more light on the
subject?
>
> Keith Ramsey
>
>
> --
> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> Version: 7.5.441 / Virus Database: 268.18.3/693 - Release Date: 19/02/07
17:01
>
>
|