 |  | | | Balmaidens - Forgotten Cornish Women | 30 Nov 2007 | | |
The forgotten women of the Cornish mines
Cornwall’s tin mining industry has sprung back to life – nine years after the last mine was closed in 1998. It’s hoped that mining at South Crofty, near Redruth, will help meet a new global demand for the metal, a demand that’s trebled in the last decade.
Historically, the image of Cornish mining is of brave men working deep underground, with a pasty to nourish them. But some sixty thousand women and girls are thought to have worked above ground or ‘above grass’ between 1720 and 1920. Lucy Frears went in search of the forgotten Cornish mining women, the balmaidens.
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