CHAPTER III
MINING—LEAD AND SILVER
The lead-mining industry in England is important and interesting from its antiquity, the value of its produce, large quantities of silver being obtained from this source during the medieval period, and the organisation of its workers. Although lacking the completeness of organisation which rendered the tinners of Cornwall and Devon almost an independent race, the lead miners of Alston Moor, Derbyshire, and the Mendips, the three great mining camps of England, were more highly organised than the iron miners of Dean, who form the lowest class of privileged 'free miners.'
The lead mines of Britain were worked by the Romans from the earliest days of their occupation of the island, pigs of lead having been found in the Mendips stamped with the titles of Britannicus (A.D. 44-48) and Claudius (A.D. 49).[123] Mines of this period exist at Shelve and Snailbeach in Shropshire and elsewhere, and smelting-hearths have been found at Minsterley in the same county and at Matlock.[124] Nor was the industry discontinued after the departure of the Romans. Lead mines at Wirksworth in Derbyshire were leased by the Abbess of Repton to a certain Duke Humbert in 835,[125] and a 'leadgedelf' at Penpark Hole in Gloucestershire is mentioned in 882,[126] though that county was not a great centre of lead production at a later date. In the time of Edward the Confessor the Derbyshire mines of Bakewell, Ashford, and Hope yielded £30, besides five wainloads of lead, but in 1086 their yearly value had fallen, for some reason, to £10, 6s. Besides these three mines Domesday Book alludes to others at Wirksworth, Metesford, and Crich.[127]
During the twelfth century the output of lead was considerable. The 'mines of Carlisle,' that is to say of Alston Moor, on the borders of Cumberland, Yorkshire, and Northumberland, occur on the Pipe Roll of 1130, and were farmed during the reign of Henry II.[128] at an average rent of £100; during the same reign large quantities of lead from Derbyshire were carried across to Boston and shipped to London and the Continent: the Shropshire mines were also active, one hundred and ten loads of lead being sent down to Amesbury in 1181 alone. King Stephen granted to the Bishop of Durham certain mines in Weardale, probably of silver-bearing lead, as the non-precious minerals already belonged to the bishopric, and during the vacancy of the see of Durham in 1196 considerable issues of silver were accounted for.[129] A similar grant of lead mines in Somerset was made to Bishop Reginald of Bath by Richard I.[130] How soon the three great mining camps acquired their privileges and organisation cannot be definitely stated: some of the regulations seem to have been traditional from very early times, even in the case of the Mendip mines, of which the laws were largely based upon the Derbyshire code. So far as the northern mines are concerned, we find Henry III. in 1235 confirming to the miners of Alston the liberties and privileges 'which they used to have.'[131]
Of the regulations in force at Alston Moor[132] we have but few details, but of the laws of Derbyshire[133] and the Mendips[134] we have ample information. In each case there was a mine court, known in Derbyshire as the 'berghmote' or 'barmote,' of which the ordinary meetings were held every three weeks and special sessions twice a year, at Easter and Michaelmas. The 'body of the court' consisted of twelve, or in the 'great courts' twenty-four, miners of good standing and the presiding officer was in Derbyshire the barmaster and in Somerset the lead-reeve: at Alston[135] he appears as bailiff, 'king's serjeant,' and steward. Associated with this official was the coroner:[136] the two offices indeed seem to have been combined at Alston during the thirteenth century as in 1279 complaint was made that the coroners of the Scottish king's liberty of Tindale (that portion of the present county of Northumberland which adjoins Alston Moor) were acting in the mine 'where the serjeant of the mine appointed by the English king ought to exercise the office of coroner in all things':[137] by 1356, however, it was the custom for the Alston miners to elect a coroner separate from the bailiff or king's serjeant.[138] The exact degree of independence possessed by these mine courts is difficult to determine. During eyres in Cumberland it was customary to send special justices to Alston to hold the pleas of the Crown. This was already an old-established custom in 1246,[139] and we find that Robert de Vipont, who about the beginning of the reign of Edward I. had formed a manor out of what had been moor and waste, had usurped the right to try thieves in his manor court, when they ought only to be tried in the mine court.[140] Even in Derbyshire there was a tendency to use the courts of the Duchy of Lancaster instead of, or to overrule, the mine courts, at least in the sixteenth century.[141]
By the Derbyshire mine law a small trespass was punishable by a fine of 2d., but if this was not paid at once the fine was doubled each successive day until it reached the sum of 5s. 4d. This same sum of 5s. 4d. (doubled in a similar way up to 100s.) was the fine for bloodshed, or for the offence of encroaching upon another man's claim underground. For a thrice-repeated theft of ore the offender's hand was pinned with a knife to the uprights of his windlass, and if he succeeded in getting free he had to forswear the mine for ever. A similarly savage and primitive measure of justice was meted out to the Mendip miner who stole lead worth 13½d.: his property was forfeited, and the bailiff was to bring him 'where hys howse or wore [i.e. ore] hys, hys work and towlls with all instruments belongyng to that occupacyon and then put hym in hys howss or working place and set fyer yn all together about hym—banyshe hym from that occupacyon for ever by fore the face of all the myners there.' Both methods of punishment are clearly of early origin, and it seems probable that they originally involved the death of the thief, though a later and more humane generation connived at his escape while retaining the ancient form of punishment. If the burnt thief did not dread the fire, but returned and stole again, he was handed over to the sheriff's officers and committed to prison, being no longer one of the privileged community. It is worth noting that the great mining camp on the borders of Cornwall and Devon, though not apparently possessing any mine court, had, as we might expect, certain control over the excesses of the miners, as in 1302 there was made 'a pit in the mine by way of prison to frighten (ad terrorem) evildoers and bad workmen.'[142] The Devon miner, as we have just said, had no code of laws or privileges; at Alston the code applied only to the miners actually living in the collection of 'shiels,' or huts on the Moor; in Derbyshire the full system of regulations was confined to the royal 'field,' though a few private owners of mining fields established barmotes on similar lines;[143] but the customs of the Mendips appear to have applied throughout the district, whoever might be lord of the soil.
By mining law the miner had the right to prospect anywhere except in churchyards, gardens, orchards, and highways; on the Mendips, however, he had first to go through the formality of asking leave of the lord of the soil, or of his lead-reeve, who could not refuse their permission; he might then pitch where he pleased and break ground as he thought best. In Derbyshire, when the prospector had struck a promising 'rake' or vein, he cut a cross in the ground and went to the barmaster, who came and staked out the claim into 'meers,' each being four perches of twenty-four feet: the first two meers were given to the finder, the third to the king, as lord of the soil, and the others to those miners who first demanded them. Within three days the owner of a meer must set up a 'stow,'[144] a wooden frame with two uprights joined by a bar or spindle placed at the top of the shaft, and serving as a windlass. If the claim was not then worked, the barmaster nicked the spindle, and if this were done three times, and the claim was still unworked, it was declared forfeit and granted to the first applicant. The regulations in use on the Mendip field were rather different. There the pitches or claims, instead of being of one standard size, were decided by the throw of the 'hack' or small pick, weighing 3 lbs. 14 oz. 'Every man when he doth begyn hys pyt, otherwyse callyd a grouff, shaull have hys haks throw ij weys after the rake,[145] so that he do stand to the gyrdyl or wast in the gruff'; while this decided the limits of the pitch along the line of the vein the pitcher had always eighteen feet on either side of his 'grooffe or gribbe.' The hack, however, was not thrown unless another party wished to pitch in the neighbourhood; in that case the newcomer, or 'younger pitcher,' could demand that the hack be thrown by the 'elder pitcher' and his partners, 'when they have their chine, rake or course,' that is to say, when they have struck the vein. The lead-reeve then proffered the hack to one of the elder pitchers, and if they failed to throw it within fourteen days the younger pitcher had the throw.[146] The rules for reserving a claim were probably founded on those in use in Derbyshire. 'The first pytcher in any grounde muste make yt perfecte wyth a caddel of tymber and a payre of styllyngs within fowre and twentie howers next after the pyching.' Although this was the strict law, custom seems to have been content with the making of the 'caddel,' some sort of framework of timber, the first day, and to have allowed a month for the 'styllyngs,' or stow. If a claim lay unworked for four weeks, the lead-reeve caused proclamation to be made, and if the old partners did not turn up within fourteen days, it was forfeited.
Besides the right of prospecting where they chose, the miners had right of access to the nearest high-road, and in Derbyshire if this were refused them the barmaster and two assistants might walk abreast with arms stretched out, and so mark out a way direct from the mines to the road, even through growing corn. They were also privileged to take timber from the neighbouring woods for use in the mines, and in Cumberland, where fuel was scarce, they might even prevent the owners of the woods from cutting them until they had obtained a sufficient supply for the furnaces. Their proprietary rights in their mines were recognised, and they could dispose of them, wholly or in part, without licence. They might also take their ore to what 'myndry' they pleased, to be smelted, and the only restriction upon the sale of the ore or lead was that in some places the king, or other lord of the soil, had 'coup,' that is to say pre-emption, the right of buying the ore at the market price before it was offered to any other purchaser, and in 1295 we find the Derbyshire miners paying 4d. a load in respect of 'coup' for licence to sell to whom they pleased.[147]