Welsh Journals

REVIEW LEAD MINING IN WALES, by W. J. Lewis. Cardiff, University of Wales Press, 1967. Pp. 415, Plates XVII, Maps and Diagrams, 13. IN the metallurgical sense lead has been described as a soft, heavy, inelastic, malleable, ductile, bluish-grey metallic element. A 'standard dictionary', published in 1914, said, Lead was known to the ancients and is mentioned in the Book of Job. It is seldom found native but its ores are common, especially the sulfid, the mineral galena, which, it is said, was used as a glaze for earthen-ware in the time of Solomon. The Romans smelted its ores and cast the metal into pigs and water-pipes, weights, etc., of their manufacture are frequently found. It now finds extensive use in the manufacture of water-pipes and its compounds are used in medicines and as pigments. Its ores occur largely in Europe, notably in Great Britain, Germany and Spain, while in the United States its frequent occurrence with silver makes its smelting one of the foremost metallurgical industries.' In this extract lead as an ore, as an element, and the smelting process which transforms the one into the other, together with some uses of the metal, have been given dictionary treatment. A detailed treatment of these subjects is given in a superb introduction by W. J. Lewis and the history of mining for lead and zinc ore in Wales, dealt with in nine subsequent chapters, is thorough and stands out as the product of an almost all-embracing research. These are followed by two not un- expected chapters on The Condition of Labour and Transport and Trade and a final chapter on Mining and Metallurgical Techniques'. The book, apart from a number of informative appendices on prices, numbers employed, mining terms, and output figures, ends with a short conclusion on past disappointments and the future prospects of the lead mining industry in Wales. The information that every county in Wales had lead workings at some time or another is given at the beginning of the first of the historical chapters this is support- ed by four maps which show the various stages of development. The first of these illustrates the main concentration of Roman workings in Cardiganshire and Mont- gomeryshire, the second the close-clustering of lead mines in the same counties from 1845, and based upon Professor O. T. Jones's well-known work, the third shows the remarkable number of lead mines worked in north-east Wales, and the fourth the spread of lead mines across the remainder of Wales. In their wealth of detail and in their attention to every known site these maps in themselves represent a major contribution to the history of lead mining in Wales and the author and Mr. Morlais Hughes are to be commended on the results achieved from their painstaking efforts. The period from 1568 to 1690, constituting Chapter III, largely belongs to Cardiganshire, but large-scale and successful lead mining began in Flintshire during the 1660's and as a result mines were opened in Denbighshire some time later there was also limited activity in the Llanrwst area during the seventeenth century. The history of the industry in Cardiganshire during this period is unfolded skilfully, with many references made available to the student, yet the quality of narrative is such as to hold the interest of the general reader. Due emphasis is given to the part played by the Mines Royal Society and to the importance of the county as a supplier of silver to the London Mint and then as a producer of silver coins in the Mint at Aberystwyth. The extent of the contributions made to the development of lead mining in Cardiganshire by Myddleton and Bushell, often in the face of great local antagonism, is made perfectly clear.