When I walk to the Post Office on Saturday morning, I cross the village and often see nobody, not a soul. Compare that, if you can, with the year 1820. The lead miners rise at first light and have whatever breakfast they can. Black pudding appears a staple, and oatcakes. Everybody lives on oatcakes. The flour was rubbish and pointless because most people did not have an oven; they could not bake bread. The miners leave their cottages at roughly the same time, to walk to the mine. Firstly, imagine rush hour. Secondly, see all those miners in the street, between 200 and 300! That is not a mistake, it is the number of miners in the village at that time. That figure did not include the women and children who went to the mine. Mining in Bradwell drove everything, the shops and businesses and all the gossip.

Women

Very little history records the women. They were the very background, the support, the social structure. Imagine their role. They were almost all fertile then and could expect one child every three years. The cycle is, give birth, breastfeed for two years and, as the hormones change, expect another birth within a year. She needed to eat well to maintain that breastfeeding. Then she might care for the pig and chickens and maybe walk the kids to the mine. They could take the lunchtime bait for her husband and they might do some surface work on the lead ore. Then they might search for wild mushrooms or blackberries or kindling. They would also find food for the pigs, such as pignut, and dig it up. Jabez Bradwell’s mother Ann had eight children, the final one when she was 44, and she lived to be 89 years of age.

Mining in Bradwell

Mining was a dangerous occupation. Over the 1800’s at least 25 Bradwell miners died in the mines. Two children fell down shafts and died. The year 1857 was the worst with 3 deaths. The women were more likely to die during childbirth but, as you can imagine, nobody thought to record those deaths. Up to 40% of all deaths were children. However, if you lived beyond 20 then, like Ann Bradwell, you might have a long life. In a way that is still surprising. The land around Bradwell was despoiled by mining waste and nearly all trees were cut down. Limeburning and smelting pumped foul fumes into the air. TB was a principal cause of death. Consequently, I can only say that we live in a far better world.

PS: The photo is Rebellion Knoll a.m. from Bradwell