PENRYN & FALMOUTH OLD CORNWALL SOCIETY: The speaker at the recent meeting was Ted Gundry of Porthleven. Introduced by the chairman, Hazel Bennett, Mr Gundry entertained the large number of members by playing recordings of the voices of the men he met when visiting the mining areas of America and Australia.
In America he went to Grass Valley where the biggest gold mine in Nevada was, with 367 miles of underground tunnelling by the immigrant miners in 1848. Many of these miners were Cornish who settled here and set up their own communities and introduced the Cornish pump engine.
The recordings from Australia included the story of two diggers, John Deason and Richard Oates, who were from the Isles of Scilly. After working as miners in Bendigo for eight years they took up a farm near Moliagul, where they pegged out a claim. Whilst digging they came upon a huge nugget of gold, almost a foot square, which when taken to the bank in Dunolly, where its value in 1869 was £9,210.
On another sound track were two local men from St Just with the distinctive Penwith accent talking about St Just Feast, which is still kept up. It meant four day holiday for the miners and there was much celebrating and also the hunt would meet in the square.
Elizabeth Trathen gave a warm vote of thanks, which was echoed by all present.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here