I know there are hundreds of personal stories in mining history and that most of you out there know more that I. But I came across one today which, to say the least, intrigued me.
Reading some of observations about the great Botallack Mine by J.H. Trounson he observed that not least of the remarkable associations with Botallack was the blind miner who worked at one period and who was suffiiciently proficient at his labours he was able to support a family of nine children. It was his proud boast that he never asked for public assistance from the parish.
This is way beyond my imagination.

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What is the name of the article by JH Trounson you are referring to?

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Quite an amazing story that, thanks! I have heard about miners my dad worked with who had limbs missing but having no sight is something else entirely.I cant imagine being blind and working in a mine

It was taken from a book "The Cornish Mineral Industry" edited by Roger Burt and Peter Waite that was a compilation of articles written by Trounson around the middle of the last century in various journals. It was I believe his personal views regarding and I quote "The Cornish Mineral Industry: Past performance and future prospect."

A Personal View 1937-1951

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This story was in the Botallack book by Cyril Noall.

I recall it saying something along the lines of him being a great asset to the other miners due to his ability to guide them through the mine should their candles ever go out. He had basicly developed a 3d mind map through touch in his head. Amazing stuff.

Back then it was either work or starve, that man's kind of ability to survive makes the moaning sofa bound benefit leaches of today look so utterly shameful with their 'I have a sore leg' excuses.

Actually the only thing I could think of was that it makes me feel very humble. Some may probably find that unusual. 🙂

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The reason I asked was because it only tells half the story and makes Botallack seem like a benevolent society. The fact is for some unknown reason this man was fired by Botallack, he then took a job at St Ives as a builders labourer. It was when in this work that he fell from the scaffold and was killed.

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Your point, apart from the benevolent society. A blind man up a scaffold!!!

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It would be interesting to know what job he actually did at Botallack. Blind pit ponies were well known, a great-uncle of mine served in the artillery in the 1914-18 war and used to talk of having blind horses in the team, since all they had to do was follow the traces.

most tramming was by hand at Botallack, and I would guess that that's what he did; the detail about having a picture of the mine in his head would support that. A blind man would only have to push the tram on rails, and start and stop when told to, because trammers didn't usually work alone.

it may also be that he was partially sighted, rather than blind.

all this is speculation, anyway.. there are no details, or are there?

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I think that's a pretty fair assumption you've made

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Another example of a blind/partly sighted miner:

John Samuel, described as 'nearly-blind', was one of two survivors of the Cae Colliery (Llanelli, Carmarthenshire) innundation in 1858 which killed ten colliers (eight by drowning and two by suffocation in air pockets) when they holed through into their own abandoned, flooded workings made in the same seam from an adjacent shaft. They had been mining without plans, a commonplace situation in smaller coal mines in this period, and had not been boring ahead. Two of John Samuel's brothers also worked in the Cae Colliery; they both drowned. The cornoner's jury returned a versict of 'accidental death' but added the rider 'caused by the ignorance of Daniel Francis, one of the deceased, in not using precautionary means of boring and keeping plans of the workings' (Daniel Francis, an experienced overman, was the appointed manager of the mine).

John Samuel subsequently worked as a lander at a nearby colliery where he died in 1859 by falling down the shaft.

Why am I not surprised by your last line ... its kinda like the puchline we were expecting... odd the other one fell off a scaffold.... now who could have predicted either event.. :lol:

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