Lynne Mayers estimates that at least 80,000 women worked at the mines, quarries and clay works of Cornwall and Devon, between  1720 and 1920. They carried out hard, skilled and specialised work, which was a crucial part of the dressing operations.
The author has carefully researched their working and home-life, and the occupational hazards they encountered. How essential were they to the industry? What were their working conditions? How much did they earn? What did they do with the little spare time and money they had? As the mines closed, and what happened to them? This is the record of a remarkable group of women, including some individual accounts of the few whose story has survived.
The Cornwall and Devon metal mines and smelters of the 18th and 19th century formed a unique and separate part of the mining heritage of these islands. No other metal mining district was so extensive, nor employed females in such abundance. It was here that much of nations mineral wealth was created, based in no small part on the labour of these women and girls.
The first edition of this book was published by the Hypatia Trust in 2004 and was awarded the Holyer an Gof Trophy in 2005. A second edition was published in 2008, and in this third edition material has been revised and expanded. The geographical are covered now includes the mines of north Devon and includes information from the 1911 and 1921 census records.