TINNERS HOUNDS
My workshop is a derelict mine building,out on the Tinners Coast,near St,.Just.
Twenty years ago, Geevor mine closed,ending several thousand years of tin mining in the area.
The mines had quickly fallen into ruins, their shafts choked with debris & scrapped machinery.
A friend, working on the maintenance staff at Geevor ,watched a mechanical digger burying a pile of redundant miners boots , & gave me a shout,I drove over & filled my pickup with the discarded boots, not knowing what I might do with them.
This discarded footwear was to become THE HOUNDS OF GEEVOR
“Relics of a vast subterranean workforce that rarely saw the light of day, each of these Hounds fed up to three & a half families(seven boots per dog).Released from their underground labours, they now wander the clifftops, looking for a proper job ”
…..& as good luck would have it, they got one.
Cornwall County Council,in conjunction with Kerrier District & Redruth Town Councils, commissioned me to cast eight hounds in bronze. Fittingly ,bronze is an alloy of Tin & Copper,,the valuable commodity that the owners of the boots were excavating from the bowels of the earth.
The TINNERS HOUNDS now stand in TATTY SQUARE, on FORE STREET in REDRUTH
REDRUTH, once the “capital ” of Cornish Tin Mining,was once a wealthy town, built from the miners labours.Local famalies,until recently supported by the skills & hardwork of those who laboured Underground,will recognise this industrial footwear.
These working men ,s boots have become shopping street sculptures, & a light hearted tribute to the Cornish miners, for their grandchildren to cuddle & climb upon.
Some more recent dogs may be viewed on my March2013 blog”WELL-HEELED BITCHES”
