Cornwall's Knockers: The Gnomes Who Toil The Tin Mines

There are numerous stories about the Knockers who are said to populate Cornish tin mines. Here is one explanation taken from The drolls, traditions, and superstitions of old Cornwall by Robert Hunt (1807 -1887).

Charles Kingsley (1819-1875) posed the question: ‘Who are the Knockers?’ This was the reply:

One Saturday night I had retired to rest, having first seen that all members of the household had gone to their bedrooms. These were my daughters, two female servants and an old woman named Mary, who was left by the proprietor in charge of the house which I occupied.

I had some time in bed when I distinctly heard a bedroom door open and footsteps which, after moving about for some time in the passage or landing, from which the bedrooms opened, slowly and carefully descended the stairs.

I heard a movement in the kitchen below, and the footsteps again ascended the stairs and went into one of the bedrooms. The noise continued so long, and was so regularly repeated that I began to fear lest one of the children were taken suddenly ill. Yet I felt assured, if it was so, one of the servants would call me. Therefore I lay still and listened until I fell asleep.

This was followed by a long explanation, and numerous stories of mines in Leland and St. Ives district, in which the knockers had often been heard. 

After a little time, Mary, imagining I suppose that the young ladies might not sleep in a house beneath which the knockers were at work, again came with her usual low curtsey into the parlour. 

“Beg pardon, sir,” says she, “but none of the young ladies need be afraid. There are no spirits in the house; it is very nearly a new one, and no one has ever died in the house.”

This makes a distinct difference between the ghost of the departed and those gnomes who are doomed to toil earth’s dark recesses.

For more interesting and unusual stories like this go to 67 Not Out – coincidences, synchronicity, UFOs, reincarnation and many other mysteries.