This book records the life and work of the women and girls who worked at the mines and clay works in the St Austell area, covering some ten parishes. The region has a mining history dating back to at least the 16th Century, but the hey-day of female employment was the 19th century, when most were working at the copper mines. It was at this time that women and girls also began to be employed at the clay works. The differences in working conditions and employment practices between these industries are described. Mining went into decline from the mid 19th Century, while mechanisation removed the need for much of the manual labour at the clay works, so that the days of the bal maidens were inevitably numbered. They had all but disappeared by the turn of the 19th century, but not quite. A final chapter tells the stories of individual mine women of the area, including those who were recruited for work during World War One and World War Two.