“If there is a hole dug anywhere on earth, you’re sure to find a Cornishman at the bottom”

This is a version of my short article in South Gloucestershire Mines Research Group’s Newsletter 67, Spring 2025 with an added, UNEXPECTED SEQUEL.

My title was filched from “Trelawny’s Cornwall”, by the BBC Radio 3 presenter Petroc Trelawny. The saying may be familiar to others, but it was new to me until last Christmas when my daughter gave me the book as a present.

“In the 19^th century thousands of Cornish miners left England to work in mines all over the world. The exit was not restricted to the Cornish, of course.  Miners travelled wherever they could find work and every time a new seam was discovered the men followed, anywhere in the World though not everybody left for foreign parts. A bell chimed in my brain, and I remembered the two Cornishmen who were killed in the Young Wood Pit at Nailsea in 1850, who I named in “Killed in a Coalpit II – Lives of the Somerset Colliers”. The report of David Martin’s inquest in June is sparse – he “fell down the pit” sadly leaving a wife and four children in Cornwall.  (Bath Chr. 13.6.1850). The second man was Martin Treehella, (Bristol Mirror 10.8.1850) a name also spelt Truhella, or Trewhella. Martin was standing on a scaffold when a rope gave way, and he fell to the bottom sustaining a severely crushed leg. He died whilst being carried to his home. He had only been married for three months, probably to a local bride, as their marriage was registered in Bedminster.

“That there were two Cornishmen in Nailsea with both having the misfortune to be killed, raises the possibility that others were there too, and would also be working in our other mines, in the Kingswood district, Bedminster or Mendip.  It is said that Cornishmen often asked if there was work available for “My cousin Jack” hence “Cousin Jack”, becoming their universal nickname, but it is just as likely they called each other “Cousin”, just as nowadays young men call each other “Bro”.  Could it be that in this case the Nailsea Two were actual cousins, a Trewhella marrying a Martin?”

I always hope for a response in which a kind person sends me their family history, and so far, I am still waiting. But there was a sequel, and it is one that I did not expect.

We were going on holiday to Ireland in April, (the Wild Atlantic Way), and as usual, on our travels, my kind son, knowing that I always like to include on our itinerary

1. something about our family
2. something Bristol connected; or
3. something mining related, died some research.

OK, I didn’t expect there to be anything concerning the first two criteria, and there wasn’t, but for the third, Kevin supplied the now defunct Allihies Copper Mine on the Beara Peninsula in County Cork.

The visit gave the proof to me and Petroc. Down the holes on that wild and rugged landscape, you would have found, not one, but Cornishmen in sufficient numbers to need a Methodist chapel built specially for them. The chapel, instantly recognisable to most Bristolians, now houses the mining museum in the village of Allihies.  And not only Cornish men, but women too, “Bal Maidens”, from at least 1812, a whole list of their names (my meat and drink).

Ailihies will keep me busy, I suspect, through the autumn, but this short piece is foretaste of things to come.

In the meantime, does anyone have a copy of this book, condition immaterial, surplus to requirements? It was published 1991, is out of print and unavailable anywhere.

The Museum itself does not even have an office copy. Indeed, though there are interesting, informative and thoughtful displays, they have no literature available of any kind, though there is a café with delicious cakes, but horrible coffee.