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Mylor Bridge, United Kingdom
$17.16
Title
Botallack Count House Cornwall
Artist
Terri Waters
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
Botallack Count House was the impressive administrative building used for the day to day running of Botallack Mines and also where the miners collected their pay. It was built during the 1860s at the height of the Cornish mining boom near to the Crowns Engine Houses on the cliffs near St Just.
Mine workers usually spent around eight hours a day underground, often after walking several miles to work. It was the high value of the tin that drove some men to take desperate risks and at Botallack they tunnelled under the ocean itself.
Mining was a harsh industry and many miners developed health conditions such as Bronchitis, TB and rheumatism from their time underground. Life expectancy was short for the workers as mines were small, cramped and vertical. Rockfalls, accidents and explosions were not uncommon making death and injury a fact of everyday life.
In the cramped levels (tunnels) and stopes (galleries) temperatures would often soar and high temperatures made working conditions in some of the deepest mines appalling.
Due to the heat miners often worked with little clothing but all wore a strong, resin-impregnated felt hat with a convex crown on which to secure a candle with a lump of clay. If mines didn't have proper facilities to wash and change into dry clothes they sometimes left their home clothing in the engine house and at the end of a shift used the water reservoir for the steam engines, known as the engine pool, to remove the worst of the grime.
To try and improve working conditions, some bigger mines introduced miners' drys which were changing facilities at the surface. The miners could wash and put on dry, warm clothing before leaving for home. These gradually became more sophisticated and eventually, by the 20th century, contained heated lockers and bathing facilities.
Despite these harsh conditions it was the first choice of occupation for most Cornish men and women due to the generally better wages on offer.
Today the ruins and Count House at Botallack show that sometimes man made wonders are more than objects of beauty or power - they are monuments to the people who suffered because of them.
Uploaded
March 11th, 2013
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Viewed 385 Times - Last Visitor from Ottawa, ON - Canada on 04/17/2024 at 10:27 PM
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Southampton, Ha - United Kingdom
Thank you Ivete Basso for featuring Botallack Count House Cornwall in the group BALCONY WINDOW AND DOORS PHOTOGRAPHY
Palmdale, CA - United States
Hi Terri your Artwork is featured at: BALCONY WINDOW AND DOORS PHOTOGRAPHY. V/F
Southampton, Ha - United Kingdom
Thank you Sandra Pena de Ortiz for featuring Botallack Count House Cornwall in the group Memories and Nostalgia
Londrigan, Vi - Australia
I enjoyed the write up accompanying this terrific photograph Terri. Comparisons can be drawn with Australia at the moment, many of the best paying jobs are in the mine industry in Western Australia, but the conditions are far improved from the time of these Cornish mines.
Terri Waters replied:
Thank you Linda, that is so interesting. Still a tough job I'm sure so hopefully the lessons have been learned and the workers have a better life now
Wheaton, IL - United States
really like the comp here Terri and the way the home/building is "framed in". v
Missouri City, TX - United States
fantastic composition, always such quaint images and you are such a doll :) v
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