Botallack

The small hamlet of Botallack was once at the centre of the Cornish tin and copper mining industry as archaeologist Ben Robinson discovers. By 1861, Botallack’s mine was one of the biggest in the whole of Cornwall.

Ben explores the village’s mining past with archaeologist Adam Sharpe. He learns the mines produced millions and millions of pounds worth of copper and tin. And while these metals were the making of the village, it wasn’t without a human cost, as local resident Paula Nicholls explains to Ben. Her ancestors, the Boyne family, owned a mine which was involved in a catastrophic explosion in 1893 where 20 men tragically died.

The mining industry was full of dangers, and some weren’t even
known at the time. With the help of Dr Lucy Santos, Ben finds out that Cornwall was extracting 50 per cent of the world's supply of arsenic by the late 19th century. It was a byproduct of tin mining, and throughout the Victorian period, the highly toxic substance was used to make vivid green dyes that were used in everything from wallpapers and women’s fashion to beauty products.