I had a look at my "back catalogue" and saw I didn´t have a video for "Mines of the Tamar from my first CD so I spent a happy day making one. This song is special for me for several reasons. I lived and worked less than half a mile from the West Devon Consuls mines and often rode around them on my bike. 

The first miners were Neolithic Man who first dug into the Devon rock. The later miners referred to them as "The Old Men"

Then the Duke of Bedford, whose land the mines are on, decided to form a company to exploit the minerals and the major investors were Bedford, Hitchens and Morris (more of him later). At its height the Tamar Valley had over a hundred mines and the abandoned and crumbling engine houses with their chimneys can be seen to this day

At one time these mines produced the majority of the world´s copper (despite the generic name of "tin mines" the first mineral that was taken out was copper). The ore was referred to as "Yellow" because of the colour and "cutting yellow from corner to corner" was mining a big seam. Indeed, the largest seam ever found at the time was mined at the Tamar mines.

When the tin and copper was running out they mined arsenic (arsenic is often found alongside tin). In Victorian times arsenic was used for everything from cosmetics to wallpaper. Famously the substance was used to provide the vivid green dye for the wallpaper designed by William Morris. Luckily William´s father owned one of the Tamar Valley mines.

For years the mines provided work for thousands of men and women - albeit hard and dangerous work - but eventually cheaper sources of copper and arsenic took over and the mines closed down. The "Cousin Jacks" emigrated to all parts of the world - which explains why there is a type of pasty in many South American countries and some Cornish ore techniques can be found in Spain.

It was said at one time that if you called down a hole in the ground anywhere in the world a Cornishman would pop his head up out of it. (The Tamar Valley is the border between Devon and Cornwall.)

Go to the video page or straight to the song here