Short Street scene, Hill End

1872
Glass photonegative

In 1861, Hill End's first census revealed a settled village of 36 dwellings with a population of 124 consisting of 76 males (24 married) and 48 females. By 1872, when this photograph was made, an estimated 7000 people lived in and around the town, including about 1200 underground miners, of whom one-third were Cornish. Hill End’s population in 2006 was just 166. Typical of a boom-and-bust gold town, every building in this phot+D84ograph has disappeared, the scene now being a grassy yard behind a rickety wooden fence.