Peter
Thanks very much - very informative.
I am not familiar with the "Petrus Fillius mines" - you mention. Could you
expand on the Tamar & Tavy mines?
Cheers
Rick
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Claughton" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 01, 2009 5:20 PM
Subject: Re: Early Tamar Valley Copper Mining
> At 11:28 01/09/2009, Rick Stewart, Morwellham Quay Mine Manager wrote:
>>What documenary evidence is there for pre eighteenth century copper mining
>>within the Tamar Valley? The earliest references that I have come across
>>are early eighteenth century Bedford Estate leases held in the DRO.
>>
>>Dines and (Ithink) Hamilton Jenkin both note that Virtuous Lady is
>>reputed to have been worked in the 16th Century.
>>
>>A more recent reference (Rippon, Claughton & Smart, 2009) notes "there
>>is, however, good documentary evidence that some copper - bearing ores
>>were being worked in the Tamar Valley by at least the first decade of the
>>fourteenth century."
>
> Rick,
>
> There is a list of mines in Devon, and other parts of south-west England,
> assessed / 'proved' by Petrus Filius in about 1528 (TNA: PRO SP1/236)
> which includes 'A mine beside our lady in the cliff - copper and lead'.
> No specific location but, although it appears in the list between two
> mines in the area of Codden Hill in north Devon, the list generally runs
> from north to south across Somerset and Devon, and the mine 'beside our
> lady in the cliff' is shortly followed by two other mines in the Tavy and
> Tamar valleys - so the mine could be Virtuous Lady, although it needs some
> work on identifying 'our lady in the cliff' which may be shrine?
>
> The best evidence for copper working comes in the early 14th century and
> the reworking of copper smelting residues at the Crown silver mines in the
> Tamar valley. The residues are described as being 'from old works at
> Calstock' which, until we found the Roman fort and associated furnace at
> Calstock (on the Cornish bank of the Tamar), was thought to have probably
> been the result of earlier medieval activity - but they could perhaps be
> the result of smelting in the 1st century. The furnace found outside the
> southern boundary of the Roman fort has been stripped of slag and that may
> be the result of collecting the residues reworked in the 14th century -
> the furnace is not a lead smelter but we have not, so far, identify any
> metallic residues associated with it beyond a high arsenic level in the
> material filling the furnace bottom. See Claughton and Smart, 'The Bere
> Ferrers Project and Discovery of the Roman Fort at Calstock', Tamar -
> Journal of the Friends of Morwellham, 30 (2008), 4-15, for some
> preliminary detail - work on the fort and its environs is on-going but a
> report should appear in the not too distant future.
>
> Peter King is correct to identify Sweden as the principal source of copper
> used in England and Wales prior to the late 17th century - all attempts to
> work copper in England and Wales before the late 17th century, even the
> renown Mines Royal operations in Cumberland, were economic failures.
>
> Peter
>
>
> Dr Peter Claughton,
> Blaenpant Morfil, nr. Rosebush, Clynderwen, Pembrokeshire, Wales SA66
> 7RE.
> Tel. +44 (0)1437 532578; Fax. +44 (0)1437 532921; Mobile +44 (0)7831
> 427599
>
> Hon. University Fellow - School of Humanities and Social Sciences
> http://huss.exeter.ac.uk/archaeology/staff/claughton.shtml
> E-mail: [log in to unmask]
>
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> See http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/files/mining-history/ for details.
>
> Mining History Pages - http://www.people.exeter.ac.uk/pfclaugh/mhinf/
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