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The metalliferous mineral resources of the Cornubian Orefield have
been exploited for well over 3,500 years. Pebbles of ‘stream tin’
have been recovered from a number of prehistoric settlement sites
and there is much evidence of prehistoric activity recorded from
Cornish tin streamworks. Until 1700 tin was the most important
metal (except for silver which was mined in the Bere Alston
peninsula during the late-thirteenth and mid-fourteenth century).
Cornwall and Devon was Britain’s only indigenous tin resource. Its
recorded production was only ever exceeded by the Erzgebirge in
Eastern Europe in the early fifteenth century.
Romano-British
period (AD 43-410)
Classical author Diodorus Siculus was a Sicilian
historian who wrote about trading for tin with Cornwall prior to
the Roman invasion. He refers to tin trading at Ictis; a
location claimed alike by St Michael’s Mount and Mount Batten in
Plymouth.
Diodorus, who may have been quoting Pytheas of Massilia (300 BC),
states
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The inhabitants
of Britain who dwell about the promontory known as Belerion
(Cornwall) are especially hospitable to strangers... The natives
work the tin, treating the bed which bears it in an ingenious
manner. The bed, being like rock, contains earthy seams, and in
them the workers quarry the ore, which they melt down and cleanse
of its impurities…and convey it to an island which lies off
Britain and is called Ictis; for at the time of ebb-tide the space
between this island and the mainland becomes dry and they can take
the tin in large quantities over to the island on their wagons. On
the island of Ictis the merchants purchase the tin of the natives
and carry it from there across the straits of Galatia or Gaul; and
finally make their way on foot through Gaul for some thirty days,
they bring their wares on horseback to the mouth of the river
Rhone.
Cornwall was the principal
source of tin for countries in northern Europe; though in the
first centuries BC and AD the Mediterranean region may have
obtained their supplies from Iberia. Tin production was probably
the main reason that the Romans ventured into this part of
Dumnonia. The nearest Roman town was Exeter but small forts have
been found in Cornwall, together with Roman milestones and hoards
of Roman coins. A Roman fort at Tregear (Nanstallon) near Bodmin
is close to an ancient ford and some important early tin workings. |
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