More on Mining


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Posted by Robert Dilley on October 26, 1998 at 18:24:32:

Thanks to those -- especially Adam Quinan -- who enlightened my ignorance on smelting copper pyrites. It is satisfying to have even a minor niggle removed.
I would like to add an even more minor point from my own area of expertise (and for the information of anyone planning to go hunting for gold on the Coniston Fells). It would have been quite improper for Captain Flint and Timothy just to start mining the vein discovered by Roger. Indeed, the SADMC could technically have found itself in trouble for removing the can full of pyrites.
Presumably, most of High Topps was common land (there seem to be no walls or fences once out of the valley bottoms). There is a popular belief that common land is public land, like Crown Land in Canada or Public Domain Land in the US. This is not true: all common land in England belongs to someone or, more precisely, to some two or more. The land is used in common by more than one person (which is why Mr Dixon's sheep had to have a mark on their fleeces -- to distinguish them from those of the other common-right holders). However, if you are not one of those holding rights over a particular piece of common you can't just go there and do what you like. Moreover, the mineral rights over common land nearly always rest with the Lord of the Manor (I don't know what manor High Topps would have been in: my researches have been confined to the former county of Cumberland). Even when the common lands were enclosed and divided among the common-right holders, the Lord of the Manor usually kept the mineral rights (I was actually consulted recently by a gentleman near Penrith who wanted to know if the 18th century local enclosure award would permit him to open a quarry on his land). Captain Flint would therefore have had to buy the mineral rights, or obtain a licence to mine. He couldn't just move in and start digging.
Of course, the Ss, As and Ds would not have known that, and I can understand AR deciding that it was unnecessary to interrupt the story (PP or PM) to explain that abstruse point. However, if you wander around with your little hammer, don't imagine that finding gold (or copper) on common land entitles you to take it away....



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