Presentation short abstract

This presentation takes up the 'Knocker', a mythical figure common to the underground spaces of Southeast England, to think about contested subterranean histories of Cornwall and the way the region’s mining heritage is being repurposed to bolster the UK’s Vision 35: Critical Minerals Strategy.

Presentation long abstract

Only 2ft tall, dressed like a turn-of-the-century miner, and deriving from similar origins as leprechauns, the Knocker (sometimes referred to as Bucca or Bwca) is still said to inhabit the underground spaces of Southeast England, guarding the tin-mine littered subterranean against unwanted intrusion. Within Cornish folklore, Knockers appear frequently as ambivalent figures, sometimes choosing to knock against the supports of a mine ceiling to bring it down, other times ‘knocking’ to warn of an impending cave-in. They are fairy-folk, trapped spirits, dead miners, guides, harbingers, and troublemakers.

Using the multivalent figure of the Knocker and presenting an interactive web-hosted mine tour, I will reflect on the contested subterranean histories of Cornwall and the way the region’s mining heritage is being exhumed and repurposed to bolster the UK’s Vision 35: Critical Minerals Strategy. I will think about the fraught implications of Cornwall’s emergent role as the ‘engine room’ or cornerstone of the country's future critical mineral capability – promising a major rebirth and industrial revival for the region, whilst also threatening community and environmental wellbeing. Through anecdotes from a range of Cornish stakeholders, I will argue that critical minerals are being actively integrated into local folklore and discourse, bringing the geopolitical into contact with the vernacular, and the speculative with industrial legacies/memories. Additionally, I will highlight how the dual-use nature of the minerals has prompted politically charged conversations regarding sovereignty, complicity, and regional identity, with the Cornish case forging new links between anti-military and anti-mining activism in the wider UK context.