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The miners took out a copper vein, leaving the slit shown
© Courtesy of Ian Tyler
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Keswick's German miners |
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Early days
Early in 1564, the first group of miners arrived in the remote Cumbrian town of Keswick to set up their headquarters. Keswick’s 200-strong German population received a frosty welcome from the local inhabitants. In the little town, with its one muddy street and a few squalid yards, the arrival of foreigners earning good money doing a skilled job must have been a bitter pill to swallow. Discord between the immigrant workmen and their local counterparts soon raised its ugly head. In 1565, one of the miners, Leonard Stoulz, was beaten to death in Keswick by a mob of 20 villagers. Another barely escaped with his life in neighbouring Grasmere.
German built mine at Grasmere in Cumbria
© Courtesy of Ian Tyler |
In 1569, the acquisition of Derwent Island by the Company of Mines Royal provided the miners with somewhere safe to live and form a community. At 250 yards long and 170 wide, the island soon became a veritable German colony, with its own bakery, pigsty, windmill and orchard. Evidence is too scanty to prove that the miners moved to the island because of hostility from local people, however having an area to themselves must have relieved tension between the two groups.
Words: Ian Tyler
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