This article refers to the mythical creatures. Knockers is also a slang term for female breasts. For Stephen King's novel see The Tommyknockers.
Knockers, Knackers, Bwca (Welsh), Bucca (Cornish) or Tommyknockers (US) are the Welsh and Cornish equivalent of Irish leprechauns and English and Scottish brownies. About two feet tall and grizzled, but not misshapen, they live beneath the ground. Here they wear tiny versions of standard miner's garb and commit random mischief, such as stealing unattended tools and food.Their name comes from the knocking on the mine walls that happens just before cave-ins ? actually the creaking of earth and timbers before giving way. To some of the miners, the knockers were malevolent spirits and the knocking was the sound of them hammering at walls and supports to cause the cave-in. To others, who saw them as essentially well-meaning practical jokers, the knocking was their way of warning the miners that a life-threatening collapse was imminent.While som