Bal Maiden

The term bal maiden refers to women and children who were probably working at or in the mines in Devon and Cornwall from the days of antiquity, but the earliest written records date from the Middle Ages. From this time, at least, it seems that women and girls did not work below ground, but usually dressed ore at surface. They were employed in particularly large numbers from about 1770 until 1860. From then their numbers declined; the last being laid off in the early 1920s. They were employed throughout the mining industry; at tin, copper, lead, manganese, uranium, antimony, arsenic and zinc mines, as well as at the clay works and smelters. In Cornwall and West Devon they were often referred to as ‘Bal Maidens’ (the word Bal being ancient Cornish for "mining place").

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