Tin Mines - Nation on Film - Drill & Blast - Cornwall

Here's a fascinating documentary about the decline of the Cornish Tin Mining Industry - Nation on Film - Drill & Blast - BBC 2003. I copied this from a tape loaned to me about 10 years ago so sorry about the missing last couple of minutes of the programme.
Nation on Film - Drill & Blast - Tin Mines.
The tin that was mined in Cornwall helped to fuel the hi-tech consumer
revolution that changed all our lives.
But the close-knit communities that worked in the mines paid a heavy price.
Until the post-war era, under investment in the mines made them hazardous
places to work.
Through archive film footage and testimony from miners and their families,
Nation On Film examines the backbreaking toil that went on hundreds of feet
below the Cornish landscape. The daughter of a miner describes how she would
try and stop her father from going to work because of the dust disease that
killed many miners.
Early black and white film shows surface workers attempting to protect
themselves from arsenic, which is also found in tin mines, by tying
handkerchiefs around their faces.
The mines began to close when the system for supporting the international
price of tin collapsed. The Cornish miners took their case to Westminster
but were refused long-term assistance. As the mines closed, a sense of
betrayal was felt in the mining communities and the Cornish countryside
still bears the scars of the disused mines."

[@carolekershaw8278]

Absolutely fascinating. My cousins husband Mike Miucci is in the documentary. Mike and his brother Dominico came across from Italy to work in the mines. They married two sisters from St Just who are my cousins. VEry hard working lovely guys. I walked the Cornish coastal path the other day and Levant and Geever are big tourist attractions now but this video depicts 'real' mining life for the people who worked there. Tough dangerous work. Total respect for the people who worked in terrible conditions.

[@nickelmickel4170]

My ancestors were Cornish miners and mine Smith's in the 1850s then migrated to Australia to mine in the gold rush.

[@Rameman33]

I remember as a truck driver delivering every week to South Crofty and was made redundant at the same time,1998.There was two boy's there that I can still remember the names of,Alan Beattie and a Lanner man,Lance Bray,he was quite a character. Enjoyed that,thank you.

[@davideddy2672]

Brilliant piece of film - I am a descendant of St. Just stock 😊

[@peterjory8830]

Heart break and amazing. Love my home of Cornwall ❤️

[@MrConan89]

In fairness to Levant owners, the failure that led to the disaster was one of metallurgy due to, probably, a defect in the cast iron rocking beam as delivered from the factory. To suggest that the mine owners might have, or should have been prosecuted is ridiculous. I am a mining engineer and worked on the coal face with a shovel. When I was working in mines in the 60's, deep sea fishing deaths were four times those of miners. Typically it was 15 deaths a year in the NCB with 300 mines in production. Of the deaths almost all were from machinery accidents.

[@anoshya]

My grandfather William Woolcock 4 Victoria Row St Just worked in the local mines..he was a captain in the mines

[@videocurios]

From 15.20 to about 15.25 the man at the the back holding the torch is my late friend Bill Gronert's dad who was foreman of the mine at Redruth.

[@TheHelboz]

Amazing footage... Shame the end got cut off.

[@SithSereyPheap1]

Rest In Peace lads !

[@geoffreynoble]

Lest we all forget.

[@ronwinke6504]

Thank u for tis fine video.god bless u allRon, WB8NMK in N W OHIO U S A Sept.9-2016

[@royfearn4345]

It was the way the Thatcher tories treated all manual workers and tories are never going to change. When you vote, remember your roots!

[@monkeyon777]

Mr Phillips has the worst Cornish. Sounds Somerset.