Beaker Folk.

Late Neolithic-Early Bronze age people living about 6,000 years ago in the temperate zones of Europe. They received their name from their distinctive bell - shaped beakers, decorated in horizontal zones by finely toothed stumps (their culture is often called the Bell - Beaker culture), usually modest single units as graves, though in much of Western Europe they often took the form of megalithic tombs; a warlike stock, they were primarily bowmen, but were also armed with a flat, tonged dagger or spearhead of copper, and a carved rectangular wrist guard. Their extensive search for copper (and gold) in fact greatly accelerated the spread of bronze metallurgy in Europe. Probably originally from Spain, the Beaker Folk soon spread into central and western Europe in their search for metals. In central Europe they came into contact with the Battle-axe ( or Single-Grave) culture which was also characterised by beaker-shaped pottery (though different in detail ) and by the use of horses and a Shaft-hole battle-axe. the culture gradually spread from central Europe to eastern England.

Bronze Age.

Early in the 2nd millennium, or perhaps even earlier from 2,300 BC. changes were introduced by the Beaker folk from the Low Countries and the middle Rhine. These people, whose round skulls differentiated them from the long - headed Neolithic people, buried their dead in individual graves often with the drinking vessel, that give their culture its name. The earliest of them still used flint. Late groups however brought a knowledge of metallurgy and were responsible for the exploitation of gold and copper deposits in Britain and Ireland. They may also have introduced an Indo - European language. While the peasants who pioneered farming economy in remote territories of the temperate zone were restricted to stone, metallurgy was already being practised in parts of South-eastern Europe and Iberia. The smelting of metallic copper from its ores was itself a remarkable feat in the history of technology; it marked the first of what was to prove a long series of operations by which men were able to conjure up new materials.

Stone to Metal Tools.

Stone tools maintained themselves during the Metals Age, yielding only slowly to the new material which was expensive and the product of specialist skills; the copper and bronze tools and weapons for hunting, warfare, husbandry and domestic use. Even the much more abundant iron that overtook and replaced copper and bronze articles was only sparingly available for many centuries. The Bronze Age of tools and implements began about 3,000 BC. In the course of 1,000 years the much more abundant iron supplanted bronze for tools, but bronze continued to be used in the arts.

Aegean Civilisations.

Bronze age cultures that flourished in the area of the Aegean Sea between c3,000 and 1,000 BC. They include the Minoan civilisation of Crete, the related Mycenaean civilisation of Mainland Greece, and the Bronze Age culture of the Cyclades. These early Bronze Age peoples of the Aegean seem to have employed similar types of metal tools including axes, adzes and. short daggers. Tweezers were used for plucking facial hairs, and rectangular stone pallets for grinding face paints with small pestles. It is interesting to note how the Aegean and Mycenaean world became enmeshed in a wide-ranging system of exchange, due in all probability to their need for central European or Cornish tin. The occurrence of segmented faience beads, of a kind invented in Egypt but probably made also in the Aegean, in the territory of the U'ne'tice and allied cultures, and also notably in Wessex, a territory that probably controlled supplies of Cornish Tin.

Mycenaean Civilisation.

1450 c 1100 B.C.. Late Bronze Age (Aegean) culture of mainland Greece in general, and often of the Greek islands except Crete.

Phoenicia.

Ancient name given to a region corresponding to the modern Lebanon, with adjoining parts of modern Syria and Israel. It is not certain what the Phoenicians called themselves in their own language, it appears to have been Kena' ani (AKKadian Kinahna ) "Canaanites" in Hebrew. They were well-known to be sea traders. Several smaller Phoenician settlements were planted as stepping stones along the route to Spain and its mineral wealth.

The far-ranging Phoenicians, master seafarers of antiquity, left more records in bas-reliefs, cylinder seals, on coins even through a crude ship model of terra-cotta made sometime between 1580 and 1200 BC at Byblos on the coast of Lebanon. The Phoenicians may even have sailed through the Straits of Gibraltar on trading voyages to Britain. They were able to stand clear of the coast and to sail by night using tables of distances and navigating by the stars.

In Cornwall.

The increasing use of metals attracted prehistoric settlers to the metalliferous zones around the granite intrusions of what became Cornwall. The wealth of such early stone relies as megalithic dolmens, monoliths and circles provides some evidence of the correlation between settlement and mineral exploitation.

The Phoenicians bartered their pottery, salt, skins, cloth and metal instruments for tin and lead from Cornwall. From this early beginning, mining played an important part of the history of Cornwall.

Historical records prove tin mining to have been highly organised in the eleventh and twelfth centuries

15th Century-Underground lode mining had developed, one of the earliest mines in Cornwall for which Articles of Association are known is of that of Wheal Whidden 1684 only 500 metres from Wheal Jane. (The all but last recent deep hard rock mine in Cornwall)

Significant in this period when the mining prosperity is reflective in the renovation and building of Cornwall's beautiful granite churches.

On the east west trading lode structures in the area were soon established a dozen or so mines: Fortune, Virgin, Girl, Poldory, Squire, Cupboard, Ale & Cakes, Clifford, Andrew, Jane, Falmouth and so on. Gradually these mines grew and , as their workings came into conflict, or the need for additional capital arose, they merged.

17th century. Showed a further period of mining prosperity.

Towards the end of the 17th Century gunpowder was introduced down mines for the process of breaking out the rock. In order to do this a series of holes had to be drilled into which the explosive was packed. Drilling out the holes was desperately hard work and the technique was for a team of two or three men to work together, one turning the drillsteel and clearing the chipping's from the hole whilst the others struck the drill steel with heavy hammers. Holes 2 1/4 inches in diameter and up to 40 inches in depth were bored and a good team could only drill about 2 inches in an hour.

18th Century-Machine driven pumps were invented, prior to this only shallow workings were possible. The pumps were installed to pump out the accumulating water that was constantly seeping into the mine workings.

They were huge machines driven by powerful steam engines and were capable of lifting several hundred gallons of water per minute from very great depths. So successful were these pumps and engines that the output of tin and copper rose prodigiously.

1710-First steam pump in Cornwall, and capitalist development of tin and copper mining.

1758-One of the first steam engines in the world with a 70 inch cylinder was erected at Herland Mine (Gwinear). This mine had been known to produce silver ore. It is said that Nanswhyden House at St Columb Major was built with the profits from this mine.

First half of the 19th century -Copper mining began in earnest , when more than 40% of the worlds output was obtained from Cornwall & Devon.

1801-There were seventy five mines in Cornwall employing about 16,000 people.

1819-Two major groups were created in the western part area: Great Consolidated and United mines the names of course indicated these mines . Consols and United, both managed by John Taylor (one of Cornwall's greatest mining engineers) were large very productive enterprises sending thousands of tons of copper ore (tin was scarcely produced at this time) down the Redruth and Chasewater Railway for shipping at Devoran and Restronguent Creek.

1839-The number of mines had grown to more than two hundred and they employed 30,000 people- 18,000 men, 5,000 women and the rest children.

1840-Some mines declined after this year but up to then Consols was far Cornwall's largest mine and, for many years the world's largest copper mine.

1842-The installation of Michael Loam's man engine at Tresavean Mine, a device whereby men travelled up and down the shaft by stepping from one moving platform to another, yet even as far as 1864 most mines reported that they had been unable to afford such a luxury.

1861-Consols and United merged to create Clifford Amalgamated mines, the eastern boundary of which approximated to the western portion of the now disused Wheal Jane workings. The eastern portion of Wheal Jane was then worked under the name of East Wheal Jane.

1862-Some three hundred and forty mines were recorded with a working population of 50,000.

The young boys and women-or Bal maidens, as they were called-were employed mainly above ground usually breaking up rock as its was brought to the surface. Using small hammers they would break the ore down to manageable sizes before loading it into trolleys and pushing it to the ore crushing machines.

1866-Financial crises, collapse of copper mining, and emigration of miners. The main reason for this was due to competition from cheaper foreign ores, which caused the price of copper and zinc to drop below production costs.

1870- The tin plate industry had reached 10,000 tons, which represented half the worlds yield.

1881-Cornish rock drill patented the immediate benefits of this were considerable. It helped to give temporary reprieve to the failing Cornish tin mining industry, which in the 1880's was beginning to suffer competition from the new mines overseas, as these were cheaper to work. It also took some of the drudgery out of drilling and, an added benefit, the compressed air used to power the drill improved ventilation and reduce working temperatures.