Hello, my name is Abby, and I am a master’s student from the University of Plymouth. I have been working as an intern for the Museum of Cornish Life to reveal the stories of Bal Maidens, who are an important part of Cornwall’s mining history. This blog will take you through the lives of these women, whist also showing their impact on Cornwall today. It will answer three questions I had when researching Bal Maidens: who were they, why were they important to remember today and what impact have they made on Cornwall’s heritage?

Bal Maidens: Work life

Bal Maidens (‘Bal’ being Cornish for mine and ‘maiden’ referring to a young or unmarried woman) were female surface workers who would work from the ages 13 onwards to break the ore brought to the surface by miners. Ore is a naturally occurring material found underground, which can be broken to extract valuable minerals. For Bal Maidens, much of the ore they broke would be copper or tin. There was three core jobs Bal Maidens had to do throughout their workday: cobbing (breaking down large lumps of ore), spalling (breaking down the broken ore into finer chunks) and griddling (washing the ore and picking out the best parts). These tasks were done during a 7am to 5pm workday, Monday to Friday, with Saturday’s being a half day. On average they would work 50 hours per week. The Bal Maidens would have a scheduled lunch break of an hour in summer and 30 minutes in winter, where they would eat their pasties and relax. These pasties (pastry filled with swede, potato and meat) would be made by the women at home and were called “hoggans”. After this break, the women would resume their tough, messy and tiring work in all weathers with little cover from the elements. To protect themselves from both the weather and flying chunks of ore, Bal Maidens would wear a uniform, consisting of a Gook (a starched cotton headdresses shaped like cones), white hessian aprons, calf length woollen dresses and handmade arm protectors. An example of this uniform can be seen in this picture of the Dolcoath Bal Maidens, although the aprons they wear in this picture are clean cotton ones and not the rough hessian aprons which would be covered in ore dust at the end of each working day.

Bal Maidens: home life

Bal Maidens and their home life in the 19th century varied greatly due to their age and marital status. It is assumed that many Bal Maidens would be unmarried and living with their parents and siblings, as women who married would supposedly stay and look after the home rather than work. However, this assumption that many Bal Maidens were unmarried women who shared the domestic duties, socially enforced by their name as ‘Bal Maidens’ referring to their young or unmarries status, could in fact be stereotype, an example of gender roles being placed within these women’s lives to ensure they live up to the idea of a perfect woman. Not much is written about the lives of Bal Maidens within the historical accounts of the mines, so it is unknown as to their actual roles they undertook when living at home. Did all Bal Maidens provide help at home when they were not working? Or did they lead more independent lives with fewer domestic responsibilities until they chose to marry and start a family? The answers to these questions are sadly unknown, lost to a lack of records but it is known that some unmarried Bal Maidens would attend Sunday church services with their families. 19th century sketches present this church attendance by Bal Maidens as a chance to show of the women’s finery, presenting them in fashionable dresses and accessories. A comment on the length Bal Maidens could go to dress fashionably states:

On Sunday the damsels display an unmistakable fondness for dress and are apt to spend on articles of clothing a portion of that which ought to buy wholesome food; the stomach is neglected, so that the feet may be decked in thin shoes and delicate white hose”

(Hamilton Jenkin, 1978)

This quote suggests that Bal Maidens would neglect their health for clothes, but this was not the case for all women. Bal Maidens had much more financial freedom and money left over after their families were provided for to buy clothes, ribbons and jewellery for themselves. The quote mirrors the emerging Victorian focus on gender roles, by suggesting that women would spend too much money on themselves and not on their families. In my opinion it reflects the negative assumption that women only focus on themselves and their appearance, that they ignore their physical needs to be fashionable (in this instance they would starve themselves for new shoes). However, Bal Maidens and women in this century are shown to be financially responsible, despite the opinions of their contemporary peers. In an exhibition for Geevor Tin Mine by Lesley Trotter, she presents examples of 19th century women whose husbands left for the mines abroad and were tasked with making a living on their own. The theme of this exhibition is resilience, showing these women’s abilities to financially survive in a challenging period. It is this theme that I want to highlight here, as Bal Maidens and women from the 19th century should be remembered for their resilience against tough living conditions, skills and contribution to the workings of Cornish mines.

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The legacy of Bal Maidens

Despite Bal Maidens being a common feature in Cornwall’s mines during the 1900’s, very few photographs, drawings and records show them. Rare photos taken in the 19th century present Bal Maidens in stages positions, dressed in neat and clean aprons and dresses. I find that the staged presentation of Bal Maidens in 19th century photographs as clean and tidy women dressed in their best aprons reflects the demand on women to be perfectly presented. Bal Maidens would work in messy surroundings, due to the outdoor nature of their work and it can be assumed that they would end the day covered in ore dust. But by showing these women as perfectly tidy, with not a sign of dirt on them hides the true nature of their job and makes the women more publicly pleasing to look at. However, it is unknown as to the true motivations behind these photographs, so we can only speculate.

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With the decline of mining in the 20th century and the closure of many of Cornwall’s mines, Bal Maidens would move on to domestic service roles or other job opportunities to support themselves. The last recorded hiring of Bal Maidens was in Geevor Tin Mine during World War Two. Developing Victorian ideals of a woman’s place in the society in the 1900’s saw Bal Maidens as having too much financial and social freedom, with their spending habits regarded as wasteful. George Henwood, reporting on the condition of Cornish mines in 1857 has this to say of Bal Maidens:

“Taken from their hearth at an early age, and kept at work for ten hours per day, they have little opportunity… to attend to their domestic and matronly duties so necessary for their future wellbeing.”

George Henwood, 1857

This quote reflects the Victorian idea that women belonged to the home, not the workplace. It suggests that by working Bal Maidens would risk their future happiness by not having the time to care for the home and their families domestically. However, not all people in this period thought like this and despite this occasional opposition against their roles Bal Maidens remained part of the mining workforce until the 20th century. Remnants of Bal Maidens remain in the form of their spalling hammers and gooks. Dolls have also been made by Cornish artists in the 20th century representing the Bal Maidens in their uniform of gooks, woollen dresses, hessian aprons and the occasional spalling hammer. The Museum of Cornish Life holds three of these Bal Maiden dolls in their collection: a 1970’s Sindy inspired doll, a 1900’s Shallow Pool doll and a 1900’s peg doll, each different in design but similar in their representations of Bal Maidens. The dolls all follow the neat and ordered picture of Bal Maidens shown in 19th century photos, reflecting the stereotype that the female mine worker was always perfectly presented and ready to have their photo taken.

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The role of Bal Maiden is still influential today. A Bal Maiden musical has been created for Heartlands (a mining museum in Redruth, Cornwall) which includes songs inspired by the legacy of these women and their importance to Cornish mining’s heritage. Books have been written by historians such as Lynne Mayers on Bal Maidens, describing their lives and giving them the recognition in history they deserve. It is important to remember the legacy of these women and preserve their role in history for the future. A quote from historian Allan Buckley sums up the legacy of these Bal Maidens:

“What is most important to remember about these women is that they chose to be Bal Maidens even when better paid and easier jobs were available. They were not exploited but they chose a hard life on the mine just as their menfolk underground chose theirs because it was the kind of life they wanted”

Allan Buckley, 2010

My question to you, my reader is this: after learning about the lives of these women, what do you think is the most important part of their history to remember? Do you think they deserve to have more presence in the story of Cornish mining, now new information on the contribution of women in mining both past and present has started to emerge? It is up to you to make your own opinions on this part of history, but I hope this has been an educational and enjoyable read for you on the history of Bal Maidens.

Abby Huckle

Sources of information:

·      Lesley Trotter., ‘The Cornish Diaspora and the Resilient Women of St Just and Pendeen’, Geevor Tin Mine, 2023, https://geevor.com/resilientwomen/ [accessed 07/07/2023].

·      MRS Training and Rescue., ‘Women in mining – then and now’, MRS Training and Rescue, 2021, https://www.mrsl.co.uk/news/women-mining-then-now#:~:text=Pit%20Brow%20Women%20and%20Screen,often%20called%20%27Screens%20Lasses%27. [accessed 07/07/2023].

·      Allen Buckley., Cornish Bal Maidens (Redruth: Tor Mark, 2010) pp. 1-6.

·      Lynne Mayers., A dangerous place to work: women and children of the Devon and Cornwall mining industries [1300-1970] (Gloucestershire: Balize Bailey Books, 2008) pp. 1-15.

·      Lynne Mayers., Balmaidens (Penzance: The Hypatia Trust, 2004), pp. 53-72.

·      Lynne Mayers., The Godolphin bal maidens, women, and girls at the mines of the Mount’s Bay area (Gloucestershire: Blaize Bailey Books, 2010) pp. 1-10.

·      Lynne Mayers., The North Coast Bal Maidens: women and girls at the mines between Portreath and Padstow (Gloucestershire: Balize Bailey Books, 2012) pp. 1-7.

·      Phillip J. Payton., Cornish Studies Second series (8) (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2000) pp. 69-91.

·      Phillip Payton., Bal-Maidens and Cousin Jenny: The Paradox of Women in Australia’s Historic Mining Communities (London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019) pp. 207-228, https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-22389-2_9 [accessed 07/07/2023].

·      Gemma Goodman., Women at Sea: Locating and Escaping Gender on the Cornish Coast in Daphne du Maurier’s ‘The Loving Spirit’ and ‘Frenchman’s Creek’, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) pp. 171-193, https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/978-1-137-58116-7_7 [accessed 07/07/2023].

·      Laura Cornish., ‘Women climb the ladder: equality, it’s the name of the game, women in mining’, 6(2), Inside Mining, (2013), https://journals.co.za/doi/epdf/10.10520/EJC131784 [accessed 07/07/2023].

·      Neil Kennedy, Nigel Kingcome., ‘Disneyfication of Cornwall – developing a Poldark heritage complex’, 4(1), International Journal of Heritage Studies, (2007), pp. 45-59, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13527259808722218 [accessed 07/07/2023].

·      Valerie G. Hall., ‘Differing Gender roles: women in mining and fishing communities in Northumberland, England, 1880-1914’, 27(6), Women’s Studies International Forum, (2004), pp. 521-530, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277539504000512 [accessed 07/07/2023].

·      The National Archives., ‘Living in the 19^th century: standard of living’, The National Archives, 2023, pp. 1-2, https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency-converter/living-in-the-19th-century/ [accessed 07/07/2023].

·      Bernard Deacon., ‘Cornish mining: a short history’, Bernard Deacon., 2023, pp. 1-2, https://bernarddeacon.com/mining/cornish-mining-a-short-history/ [accessed 07/07/2023].

·      Penwith Local History Group., ‘Bal Maidens at Work 1857’, Penwith Local History Group, 2023, pp. 1-2, https://www.penwithlocalhistorygroup.co.uk/the-penwith-papers/?article=Bal+Maidens+at+Work+1857&id=5 [accessed 07/07/2023].