My guess is that the landowner forfeiting the lease needed to make formal
entry, not only to the surface premises (perhaps a counting house), but also
to the mine itself.  If there was no head gear this would be difficult.
However, placing his own goods (in this case a stone) in the mine shaft was
presumably deemed to be an act inimical to the continued existence of the
lease.  I have not heard of the practice before, but this is not quite my
subject.

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
John C Symons
Sent: 24 November 2006 13:47
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Wheal Dollar


Thank you for your response.

If the plan is not too large I must see if I can obtain a copy from
the CRO. I'm waiting for photocopies of the newspaper references from
the Cornish Studies library, as well as the CRO reference listed in A2A.

I already have a significant number of court documents, it was from
these the quotation was taken. No one was labouring at Wheal Dollar
at this time, or any time previous, this being the reason for
forfeiture. As far as I am able to determine nothing of any
significance had been undertaken, and certainly no buildings had been
erected, or machinery installed.

I have yet to come across any reference to mining at Wheal Dollar
prior to the 1820s working. Does the MRO plan have a date?

Regards

John

On 23 Nov 2006, at 14:29, Alasdair Neill wrote:

> The MRO plan of Wheal Dollar at CRO Truro (MRO R306B) shows shallow
> workings (?10 fathoms deep) with two shafts both pumped by a horse
> engine
> up to a shallow adit. I have a redrawn copy of this, if you want to
> see the
> original please note that I understand the MRO plans at Truro will
> shortly
> be withdrawn by the HSE for digitising.
> This section presumably predates the 1820's when there was a small
> steam
> engine erected (sale notice amongst the newspaper refs quoted).
>
> I have never heard of a stone being thrown into a shaft as a method of
> repossessing a sett - usually a notice of forfeiture was attached
> to the
> count house, capstan, or some other similar feature. What if
> someone was
> working in the shaft at the time?
>
> It may be worth checking the books of proceedings of the Stannary
> Court at
> CRO which perhaps give more details - I don't think these are
> indexed for
> individual mines. I havn't seen them myself but some time ago put
> Allen
> Buckley onto these for an earlier date, he indicated these are well
> worth
> further research.
>
> Alasdair Neill.