Under the windswept hills of North Western Breconshire lie veins of mineral ores, particularly lead. For a while in the late 18th and early 19th centuries men worked underground in shafts and tunnels to get at these minerals. Although these remote mines were on a small scale they were important to the area during the earlier years of Victoria's reign.
The
lead mine at Nant-y-brain to the SW
of Abergwesyn is typical of these remote mines. In the 1840s the lead the
miners found looked very promising and hopes were high that a fortune could
be made. The manager Mr Couch treated the miners to a roast bullock and
six barrels of good ale at Christmas in 1846. Some of the miners were experienced
men brought in from Cornwall especially.
They lodged in local farms or lived in a building at Pengwaith nearby which
was like a barracks. Living and working in this remote place must have been
hard and fights were common. On one occasion a miner was killed after a
quarrel! The amounts of lead extracted were never as high as was hoped and transport was difficult and expensive in this area. The mine struggled on for a number of years but was eventually closed in 1876.
The
map above shows two of the local mines and gives us an impression of the
mountainous landscape they were sited in. The mine at Cefn
coch produced both lead and copper.