Cousin Jack

'Tis said in these parts that if you look down a hole anywhere in Australia, Canada, South Africa or New Zealand there you will find Cousin Jack digging.

When the mines in Corwnwall were all worked out, at the end of the 19th century and the owners had abandoned their men, and left scars that last to this day on the Cornish landscape there was mass emigration to the new territories to get work in the mines there.

The quayside in my village that was once used to ship copper, tin, wolfram, and arsenic to Swansea in south Wales for processing (it was easier to take the ore to the coalfields than bring the coal to Cornwall) was suddenly loading shiploads of men and their families to take to distant parts.

In my village alone, within one square mile of where I live there were, in those times, 800 working mines. So you can realise the size of the emmigration and the loss to Cornwall of its beloved sons. So everywhere in Kernow someone had a relation (a Cousin Jack) out digging in a hole somewhere. Some interesting facts can be found at http://www.minebydesign.co.uk/calstock/mines/mines_people.htm#drakewalls
where you might even find information on a Cousin Jack or some of those whose descendants still live amongst us.

There are a couple of young musicians who have recorded the history of Kernow, past and present in song. They are now, after many years of toil around the clubs and halls achieving the national fame and awards that they deserve and one of my favourite albums of theirs is entitled
"Dark Fields" which has Cousin Jack on it. They are to be found at http://www.showofhands.co.uk/

Enjoy.

Gordon from the Celtic Parts.