1863 – a Victorian year in perspective

The early 1860’s were a facinating period; a period packed with technological innovation and social change.

Unfortunatly my transformation of the Liskeard Mining Area in 1863 CD ROM to kindle format did not lend itself well to including the scene setting page describing 1863. So here are those words, starting at the World level and descending through the UK, Cornwall to get the events surrounding Liskeard.

1863 a Victorian year
This was the Britain of Victoria’s widowhood, Prince Albert had died in 1861, and the Queen was in virtual retirement. Her Prime Minister was the elderly Lord Palmerston, then in the last three years of his life. 

Europe was in the aftermath of the Crimean war and feeling the economic impact of the American Civil war.

It was the age of the Pre-Raphaelites and the impressionist artists, Charles Dickens was writing his novels, and Neo-Gothic architecture was in fashion. John Stuart Mill’s philosophy was forming the concepts of the welfare state we know in the UK oday.

Railways were making huge impacts on life in Britain, and their growth was breaking Cornwall’s isolation from England.
Science advances included Francis Galton writing the first book on weather mapping, Gregor Mendal conducting his pea trials to discover genetics and Nobel inventing the mercury fulminate detonator.

World News

HMS Warrior

The American civil war was in progress.
Slave emancipation proclamation was made by Abraham Lincoln.
The second empire existed in France, where Napoleon the III was in power.
The Prussian Danish War occurd.
An industrial arms race exists between armour, guns, forts and ironclads.
Maximillian accepts crown of Mexico.
The Gold Rush is under way in Montana.

Events in Britain
The Duke of Cornwall marries.
The Albert Memorial was being built.
John Stuart Mill writes Utilitarianism.
First underground railway is opened in London.
Boots the Chemist is founded.

“Victoria’s personal physician Sir James Clark recorded that he feared for Victoria’s sanity in 1863, and there were some who thought that Victoria had inherited the “madness” that had taken hold of George III, Victoria’s grandfather. “

Queen Victoria: A Life From Beginning to End”

Cornwall

Brunel’s Bridge across the Tamar

A Railway line is opened to Falmouth.
Cornwall’s isolation is broken by the growth of railways.
The Duchy’s Population had peaked in 1861.
Emigration was in progress, but was not yet on a massive scale.

The Cornish mining industry

The mines of the West Cornwall were becoming exhausted.
Devon Great Consols, and the East Cornwall mines dominated the Industry.
Overseas competition was having an impact on the markets.
Share speculation was damaging confidence in the industry.
The great copper price collapse of 1866 was just around the corner.

Liskeard

New Methodist chapels were opened.
Mining dominated the economy.
Ore traffic on the Liskeard and Caradon Railway peaked.
Liskeard is sufferred from overcrowding and poor sanitation caused by the mining boom.
The Liskeard water works had been recently opened.
Many new buildings were constructed by architect Henry Rice, funded from the wealth flowing outwards from the mines.

The following books contain more information about mining in the Liskeard area during 1863.

The Liskeard Mining District in 1863

The History and Progress of Mining in the Liskeard District

A Victorian geological map- How much geology?

Brenton Symons’s 1863 map of the Liskeard mining district went under the grand title of

Geological map of the Caradon and Ludcott Mining Districts

But for those studying the subject of geology it appears to be sparse in geological information. Despite of it being published over 60 years after William Smith’s famous geological map of the Britain, no swaths of colour cross the map to denote the complexity of underlying strata, and no attempt is made to define the age of the rocks.

The reason for these omissions is focus. Brenton Symons’s geology only extended to the requirements of potential mine investors, and for their needs this map was perfect. And yet a close study of the map can reveal much about the geology of the area, and in some respects it contains more detail then the modern British Geological Survey maps.

In this post I will look at extracts from the map and explain what geological information can be extracted from this Victorian document.

The extract shows a small unsuccessful mine called Caradon Vale, that lay to the east of Caradon Hill, in Southeast Cornwall, UK. The UK Grid Reference is SX 29394 70992.

Prominent on the map is red lines denoting the course of the lodes. The dominance of these features is a reflection of the importance that the map’s  purchasers would have placed in them. Lodes represented the potential for profits. Profits from either minerals or share speculation.

In Cornwall the east to west running lodes carried tin and copper, whilst north to south lead. So in this extract the mine was working three potential copper lodes, and one lead.
Arrows on the lode indicate the direction of underly; two of the copper underlay to the north, and one to the south. The longest lode is named ‘Caunter’, a name that indicates that it’s course is different from adjacent lodes.

The number 55 states the depth of the workings in fathoms, where one fathom is six feet. Other details of the mine relate to its operation rather then its geology. Pumping shafts, steam engines, the count house (Star) are shown.

Imposing into the western side of the map extract is an important geological detail, the granite/killas contact. This is denoted by the shaded line. To the west of this line is the granite intrusion of Bodmin Moor, whilst the rest of the map is in metamorphic rocks.

The BCG map Sheet 337 shows a more complex situation. Crossing the area in a northerly direction is a thrust fault with
Lower carboniferous of the Brendon formation to the west and upper Devonian of the Brook slate formation to the east. However, only two lodes are shown on the modern map, both carrying lead. 

Simon’s map prospective buyers were not scientists interested in uncovering the geological past, instead this was a map whose buyers had a more limited interest in the ground beneath their feet. The map’s customers would have poured over its contents looking for where the next rich strike of copper, tin, lead or silver could occur. Today the detail it shows of the lodes around Caradon Hill forms a excellent supplement to the modern geological maps of the area.

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For the BCG map of the area click on the map within my post.
To download a sample of Brenton Symons’s map from my Amazon store click here.

Happy St Piran’s Day- wherever you are.

The Real Cornwall (an Kernow gwir)

A few thoughts for St Pirans day