Fairy Lore: The Knockers...
They are often said to live within the mines and can be dangerous or benevolent depending on who you ask..
The Cornish described the creature as a little person two feet tall, with a disproportionately large head, long arms, wrinkled skin, and white whiskers. It wears a tiny version of standard miner's garb and commits random mischief, such as stealing miners' unattended tools and food.
Other Names
The Knocker, Knacker, Bwca/bucca or Tommyknocker is a mythical creature in Welsh, Devon and Cornish mythology . It's closely related to the Kentish Kloker or the Irish Leprechaun .
In the 1820s, immigrant Welsh and Cornish miners brought tales of the tommyknockers and their theft of unwatched items and warning knocks to western Pennsylvania when they relocated there to work in the mines.
The American gold rush brought people from all over the new world in search for gold , silver and untold wealth with there arrival is California, Nevada and Colorado tales of these subteranian dwelling little creatures soon began to rise.
When asked if they had relatives who would come to work the mines, the Cornish miners always said something along the lines of "Well, me cousin Jack over in Cornwall wouldst come, could ye pay ’is boat ride", and so came to be called Cousin Jack.
The Cousin Jacks, as notorious for losing tools as they were for diving out of shafts just before they collapsed, attributed this to their diminutive friends and refused to enter new mines until assured by the management that the knockers were already on duty. Even non-Cornish miners, who worked deep in the earth where the noisy support timbers creaked and groaned, came to believe in the Tommyknockers.
The American interpretation of knockers is somewhat more ethereal or ghost like than elvish.
Belief in the knockers in America remained well into the 20th century. When one large mine closed in 1956 and the owners sealed the entrance, fourth, fifth, and sixth generation Cousin Jacks circulated a petition calling on the mineowners to set the knockers free so that they could move on to other mines.
The owners complied. Belief among Nevadan miners persisted among its miners as late as the 1930s.
Tommyknocker Brewery in Idaho Springs Colorado..owes its name to the mythical creature, and began serving in 1859 to meet the needs of the large number of prospectors, as part of the Colorado Sliver Boom. The brewery continues to operate and distributes nationally.
Knocker also appeared as a name for the same phenomena, in the folklore of Staffordshire miners.
Cornish Myth...
The Knockers get there name from the knocking sounds the make on the mine walls that happens just before cave-ins. (actually the creaking of earth and timbers before giving way.)
To some miners, knockers were malevolent spirits and the knocking was the sound of them hammering at walls and supports to cause the cave-in. Other's saw them as essentially well-meaning jocksters .
Some believed the knocking was their way of warning the miners that a life-threatening collapse was about to happen.
According to some Cornish folklore, the Knockers were the helpful spirits of people who had died in previous accidents in the tine mines, and this was there way of warning the miners of impending danger. To give thanks for the warnings, and to avoid future danger the miners would throw the last bite of their pastries into the mines for the Knockers.
Some described the knockers as human like in appearance other's say the are more goblin like...
Chaddar cave demon
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One of the more well know iterations of this tale come from American Horror writer Stephen King and is story The Tommyknockers, later adapted into a movie.....Though they were depicted as aliens instead of supernatural beings
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