The Cornish women you’ve probably never heard of - miners and maternity
Imagine if, in two or three hundred years from now, the history about the moon landings, rocket science and space exploration, heralded only the women who participated. The men were relegated to the background doing trivial jobs that did not warrant an official ‘record’. Interest, pride, respect and celebration were reserved for women alone.
It would seem shocking to us in 2025 - because it is ridiculous.
So why is it that the role of women in mining in Cornwall has been so disregarded? Answer: because miners are blokes. Yes miners were blokes but the very first miners in Cornwall were women.
There’s a monument to them in the car park of the celebrated Poldark Mine. Yes that's right - in the car park. Unlike the actual mine and museum, you don't even need to pay to see it. It's a large round, flat, smooth stone - one of only 4 in the world - dating back thousands of years, and it’s the site of the first mining in Cornwall. The miners were all women. They mined above ground only, and used this beautiful large stone to hammer ore out of the rocks they collected near their settlement.
How come? It's obvious when you think about it: with little or no medical knowledge of childbirth, men and women were faced with the daily prospect of survival. Not knowing which, if any, of the women were pregnant for some months, it made perfect sense for the men to risk their lives hunting, and for the women to mine precious ores for their weapons. If a man was injured whilst hunting, the tribe or clan lost only one person. If a woman died, this could mean the loss of 2 clan members. It was just basic survival. And it was effective.
The ‘fact’ that men innately want to hunt and kill things, and women innately want to make the dinner with the killed thing, is farcicle. It’s not a fact, it’s a belief. The concept of macho man, and docile domesticated woman has completely pervaded nearly every culture on the planet. Which is why I wrote Earth’s creator (or great god) as female. Just to flip it. Tell the story a different way.
Our ancestors knew that women bled in complete unity with the Moon’s waxing and waning, (as they still do in parts of the world where there is no electric light) and they understood that this type of bleeding did not cause them to die, even when it appeared to be excessive. Seeing that, they placed huge importance on the power of the Moon over women, and the clan’s continued success, as women reproduced both female and male children.
So when I looked at Stone Circles in Cornwall, and indeed across the UK, it occurred to me that they were simply the first maternity wards. They replicated the Moon’s shape, provided stones for the women to lean their backs against, offered shelter from wolves and other preying creatures, and warmth from the fires within. Attended by Crones (women post menopause) and Maidens (women yet to give birth) - there would be immediate help on hand with labor, and collectivised food and drink to sustain them. In this first holy place, that represented the Moon on Earth in physical form, women could more successfully survive labour.
Relatively quickly, word would have spread that building replica moons to mirror its shape, worked: either because the moon which governed their cycles was being worshipped, or because the process of labour was more successful with the support of other women who had experienced it. If the Moon governed the cycle of menstruation, it must be important to life. There are at least 24 known, stone circle maternity wards in Cornwall.
I have no scientific evidence to back this theory up. Having been through childbirth myself, it just feels instinctively right. On behalf of all the Mums before me, and all those yet to come, I claim stone circles.
So really the first human, to step on the actual Moon, and give thanks, either was, or should have been, female.
Louise Dunne - 24/09/25
