CHRISTMAS IN LINKINHORNE
150
Years Ago
An article
written for the Parish Magazine for December 2001
What was Christmas like in this parish 150 years ago?
My guess is that Linkinhorne was a very divided community. For centuries the area had been an agricultural based economy and with the vast majority of folk, many from long standing families, being either farmers or farm labourers. Although there had been some small scale open cast mining and tin streaming on the moors for many years, it was not until the 1830’s and the discovery of large deposits of copper that life in Linkinhorne changed. Over the next twenty years the moors changed totally and there was a huge influx of ‘strangers’ into the parish. These were mainly miners from further west. They were hardworking, hard drinking and unruly bunch of men who spent much of their money in the local drinking houses that sprung up everywhere. You can just imagine the local farmers warning their daughters away from any association with “that lot up on the moor”, and if you look at the records there are very few marriages between miners daughters and agricultural workers daughters. It wasn’t until more mining families settled in the area and the Methodist movement became more widespread that some degree of respectability returned to the area.
So December 1851 found the population of Linkinhorne at over 2000 people and still rising (1831- 1159, 1851 – 2005, 1871 – 2818, 1991 – 1475). As mines opened up in the valleys, Marke Valley, Darley, etc, the miners intruded more and more on local life. Many of the poorer residents gave lodgings to miners to increase their income, shops and drinking houses where everywhere, as were tradesmen.
To the vast majority of people Christmas Day was the one day in the year that they had off, and most would have gone to church (walked all the way to Linkinhorne) at least once or twice during that day. They might even have gone to attend the wedding of Thomas Jenkyn a cabinet maker from DwellaMill as he was married on the 25th December 1851, a Thursday at Linkinhorne by the Rector of South Hill, Rev. H N Rice. However there were already chapels that were flourishing as Thomas Matters and Jane Trelease had got married on the 23rd Dec at the Association Chapel at Darley, he was a miner and the son of a miner. Jane was a Mine Agents daughter. It is interesting to note that although they were only 24 and 25 years both their fathers were deceased.
The Christmas period of 1851 was remarkably low on fatalities. Jonathan Harris a 24 year old miner had been accidentally killed at West Phoenix mine. Alfred Hicks from Upton (12 days, son of a miner) had died of Thrush and had not received any medical attendance and Richard Martin of Plushabridge (5 years) had died of scarletina. Elizabeth Jane William Cock who was labelled a ‘bastard’ had died at 4 months of consumption. Her mother Jane was from Dunsley and it is likely that the father had the surname William, one wonders who mourned her passing? Generally fatalities amongst the miners were high, many children simply did not survive and common causes of death are debility, fits, inflammation of the brain as well as diarrhoea and measles. You seldom find an elderly miner in the records, a common cause of death is phthisis which is a pulmonary consumption. In 1861 when 41 people died in the parish the average age of death was only 15 years. Whenever anyone is found who has reached a good age they would be a farmer, farm workers or associated trades. In December 1851 John Martin a carpenter of Churchtown died of ‘Old Age’ at 92, Elizabeth Bate died at DwellaMill at 70 years and Elizabeth Brown a widow of Treovis died at 73 years.
Eight children were born during the December and six of these were to miners families, there must have been something happening around Treovas (sic) as three babies were all born in that month! In the 1851 census (April) John Vine already had 5 surviving children and William Jeffery had seven and an additional one was born to each family in December. As they were both miners one wonders how welcome an additional mouth to feed was. For labourers and miners life was a daily struggle to survive, as there was no birth control the majority of women had a child at least every other year and it was only the very low survival rate that kept the size of families down. Many would have lived in temporary dwellings built from what was available, turf, stone and some timber. Sanitation was often non-existent or if you were lucky was a closet at the end of the garden. The water supply would be from a common pump. One fire that was used for cooking would usually be the sole means of heating.
The landscape around Minions was totally different to what we know today. Around the 1850’s it was estimated there we 50 engines working around Caradon Hill, these would be belching steam and smoke and as many would be stamp engines, the constant sound of the hammering to break the ore would echo for miles around. It was said the scene resembled a cross between a lunar landscape and something from the Black Country with heaps of spoil, railways, engines and all sorts of buildings and shacks. Pollution was reported to be so bad that the grass could not grow and animals died in the fields. Every stream and waterway was polluted, even as far as the Lynher. Yes, you could imagine what the locals thought of all this! And amongst all this industrial activity miner wives were trying to raise families, you wonder if they even knew it was Christmas Day?
In the eastern half of the parish there was probably more tranquillity. Agricultural workers, if they were lucky, would have a small stone cottage in which to house their large families. After seeing to the animals and attending church they would have almost half a day off, with another half day to look forward to on Sunday.
So when you are sat in front of your television, in your centrally heated houses with all mod cons, spare a thought for those hundreds of people who lived here before you, who shaped this land and made it what it is today.
Lynda Small