Home Page

By Month	Agents, clerk, storekeeper, enginemen, smiths, trammers, kibble fillers, landers, count house housekeeper.
By Day, Stem, Core (shift)	Masons, assistant smiths, assistant carpenters, ore dressers, sundry workers.
By Quantity	Whim drawing per 100 kibbles, sawing timber per 100 feet, weighing, dividing and mixing ore by ton or dole, assaying per sample.
By Bargain	Sundry work underground and on surface.
By Tut Work Contract	Shaft sinking, development mining (drives, raises, winzes), stoping occasionally.
By Tribute Contract	Stoping (production mining)

Note: If there are unfamiliar terms please click on the Glossary page of the site

In Cornwall miners worked in a 'pare' which was a team of from two to twelve or more men, under a leader, who made a contract with the Captain each month for working in a specific location. This was called Tut Work and the contract was usually in terms of payment per fathom advanced in shaft sinking and tunnelling. The rate per fathom would reflect the hardness of the rock, the cross section of the excavation, the ground conditions, location in the mine and other factors. At the end of each month measurements were taken to the nearest inch and recorded in the Cost Book. Charges for materials, such as candles, gunpowder, safety fuse withdrawn from the mine stores, would be deducted from the gross pay.

A Tribute contract was different in that the pare received a certain percentage on the actual value of the ore mined and raised to surface at a rate of so many shillings in the pound. A successful tributer needed to "know his ground" because at the beginning of each month 'pitches' in the orebody were put up for auction, and the lowest bidder was given the contract.