Mining by the Old Men
Dartmoor Tin mining -
Streaming for tin, Stannary and Parliament.
The Old Men always search from West to East believing that the Great Flood
had deposited the minerals on the surface and that the Flood flowed from
East to West.
The mineral-bearing ores being heavier, would have been dropped by the Flood
before the lighter materials. Therefore the richest materials (by their
reckoning) must lie to the East of where they found it! Quite a sound
idea if the Flood story were correct!
The minerals were placed in furnaces know as "jews houses" (derivation
unknown) or "blowing houses" which they build for the purpose quite close
to where the mineral was found.
The mineral was layered with peat and when the furnace was fully loaded
the fires were lit.
The "runoff" of molten metal was poured into crude granite mould stones
and allowed to cool into ingots of "white" tin. "Black" tin was the crushed
ore before it had been smelted.
The "blowing" houses were roofed with crude thatch of turves and
periodically the roofs themselves would be tore off and burned to
salvage any particles of tin which may have been blown into the roof during smelting!
Waste not, want not! It must have been worthwhile or it would not have
been done!
The resulting "white" tin was loaded on to pack horses and had to be taken for assaying to ascertain its purity. This was a matter of strict law and the penalties for adulteration were severe in the extreme.
The King set up "stannary" towns, locations to which the mineral had to be presented for assaying before being sent to the smelters proper to be turned into pewter etc:.
The technique involved cutting a piece off the corner of an ingot for
assaying its tin content. The corner or "coign" is where we get the word
in the English language - "coinage".
The assay signified that the coign
was pure and by association that the "coinage" of the realm was
also "pure". Not all coins in all realms have been "pure"!
Stannary towns were very important places. Near to Mary Tavy are the ancient stannaries of Tavistock and Lydford - just some three and a half miles away!
The tinners themselves were so important to the King and his Treasury
that he allowed them to have their own Parliament which had the power to
ignore some of the rulings of the Parliament in London and
Stannary Law took precedence over Common Law.
These rights of the "Stannary Parliament" were very powerful and
were a cause of great dissatisfaction to the people in general,
especially the landowning classes.
Civil or Common Law could easily be over-ridden by Stannary Law - and more
often than not it was! The rule was - "Don't upset the tinners"!
The Tinners' Parliament used to meet once a year on one of the Dartmoor tors.
The tor in question was Crockern Tor. Each district was expected
to send a tinner to be a representative for his area.
For once the landed gentry did not have the upper hand.
Once power was gained by the
tinners they were unwilling to reliquish it. They even refused to
pay common taxes - and got away with it quite frequently.
Tinners' Rights have been claimed as recently as the late 1980s in an
attempt not to pay the "poll tax" introduced by the Thatcher Government!
It was to no avail as the rights of tinners had fallen into disregard.
Even so, I understand that tinners' rights have never actually been
removed from the Statute Books!