Tavy and Tamar Valleys (Devon side) - Lodes 35-36

Lode 35 - Devon Great Consols South Lode

The southern of the two great copper lodes at DGC runs about 230m south of and parallel with Main Lode. It was only worked east of the Great Cross-Course in the 19th century, despite evidence for earlier lodeback workings to the west. Few surface indications of this lode survive, other than the dumps of four shafts and a possible fifth at the extreme western end of the working. Drainage was effected by the Blanchdown Deep Adit, shared with Main Lode, with water powered pumps in Railway Shaft at the eastern end of the lode.

The best preserved features lie at the eastern end of the lode in the Rubbytown valley, where a 200m long flatrod run left the great 720m run to Agnes Shaft on Main Lode, crossing the steep-sided valley just below the two silt ponds, to pump Railway Shaft, beside the DGC Railway at the foot of the Wheal Emma inclined plane.

To ensure the rods stayed reasonably straight when crossing the valley, an extraordinary stone flatrod tower was built on the valley floor. This may have contained a pendulum, counterbalancing rods or chains crossing at a higher level. Alternatively, rods may have desended the steep valley sides to attach to either side of a V bob, whose root was attached to a bearing at the top of the tower. The slots on either side would allow such a bob to swing unencumbered to and fro. This magnificent structure would have been easily visible from the railway and was probably intended as much to impress as any mechanical considerations.

A steam whim lay a short distance east of Railway Shaft and we are fortunate in having an image of this in the foreground of the well-known photograph of Wheal Emma, (This photograph will be added very soon) probably taken from Agnes Shaft in about 1870. This shows the weather platform of the engine house to be propped on large timber posts - perhaps building work was going on?

Lode 36 - Devon Great Consols Main Lode

This, the greatest copper lode ever discovered in South-West England, was worked underground from 1844 to 1901, with subsequent re-working above adit between 1914 and 1925. Despite evidence for underground workings for copper elsewhere in the Tamar Valley as far back as the early 18th century, and ample evidence for more ancient workings on this lode, for some reason it was not developed below ground to any extent before 1844. Other authors, Frank Booker particularly, have cited the sporting interests of the Dukes of Bedford as being the principal reason for the lack of mining in the first half of the 19th century, but this does not explain the apparent lack of activity before then.

It should be observed that Wheal Capeltor, just across the Combe brook to the west was worked for a short time in 1810 under the direction of John Taylor. It is possible that some exploratory work was carried out to the east at this time, perhaps at what later became known as Gard's Shaft.

This was the location of the great discovery of 1844, when an existing shaft of about 13fms depth was sunk only four more fathoms to find solid copper worth £150 per fathom. This shaft was evidently known to the 1844 adventurers, who may have even known who had sunk it in the first place. Its position to the east of the stream, could mean that it was not in the granted Capeltor sett and that work was stopped when the Bedford Estate agent found that work was going on there. The taking of such a liberty at Lopwell silver-lead mine on the Tavy in 1846 resulted in the landowner's carpenter being sent across the river to cut the pump rod!

The Bedford Estate's negative experiences with Gill & Company (lessees of the Morwellham and Tavistock wharfs) in the early 19th century may have coloured their opinions of such freeloaders for many years. It is perhaps significant that Jehu Hitchens, a mining speculator associated with many prospects in the vicinity and who had been badgering the Estate for decades over the Blanchdown sett, had died in 1841. Possibly it was he who was the sticking point.

A full description of the mine and its history is in preparation by Rick Stewart, to be published by Tamar Mining Press, and of course other published sources are already available (see Further Reading). It is therefore not proposed to study this mine in great depth. The five workings on the Main Lode into which the mine was split for ease of management are listed below, with their principal shafts located by NGRs. Close study of the maps and sections will reveal many more interesting features.

Unfortunately, in common with standard Bedford Estate practice, upon closure of the mines in 1903, all the larger buildings and structures were demolished. Despite this loss, many buildings and structures, particularly all the employees' houses, have survived, often well-preserved in the dense conifer plantations which were subsequently planted over much of the mine site. The enormous rusty red dumps of course survive in the centre of the site below Wheal Anna Maria, where the chief of the mines' dressing floors was situated. These mark out the site of the mine for miles around: the arsenical pyrites or mundic which they consist of having been thrown away for the first 20 years of the mine's life.

Chief among these survivals are the extraordinary flatrod runs, eight of which marched across the landscape of steep hillsides and valleys as if they did not exist! All were operated by large water wheels, introduced from 1849 by Nathaniel Smith, Wheal Friendship's hydraulic engineer.

The most impressive of these were two pairs of wheels near Blanchdown Farm on the southern edge of the site. The western pair of wheels were located beside the river at and worked pumps at Plunger Shaft via a flatrod run of 220m to deliver clean water to the top of the hill for ore dressing; while a run of 720m pumped Agnes Shaft at Wheal Emma. Rod spurs of 550m to Watson's Shaft and 190m to Railway Shaft were taken off the eastern run.

The eastern pair of wheels were sited at the mouth of the Rubbytown Combe 220m to the north-east at and pumped Wheal Anna Maria Engine Shaft via a 930m run of rods and Richards' Engine Shaft at Wheal Josiah by a 690m run of rods.

All these flatrod runs survive well in the dense conifer woodland which now covers the site, with stone revetment walls to cuttings and embankments, bridges to take them beneath railways, leats and tracks, and occasional specialist features such as the flatrod tower in the Rubbytown Valley and the massive bob pit at the west end of the South Wheal Fanny rod run.

Unfortunately, none of the water wheel pits have survived well, probably due to their extensive use of large granite blocks in construction, which have been robbed after closure for re-use elsewhere. Despite this, partial remains of the eastern pair of wheelpits survive, in scrub woodland 130m north-west of Blanchdown Farm. The tailrace arches survive, one with a fine cut granite keystone, bearing the legend 'DGC 1849'. One wonders at the grandeur of what has gone.

The other major set of features which survived the demolitions of 1903 is that of the hydraulic system. Due to the mines' location on a hilltop, it was necessary to supply clean water for dressing and to feed the boilers of the many steam engines which were used for pumping, winding and crushing. Although mine water could be used for dressing, its strong sulphur content meant that it was essentially dilute sulphuric acid, which ate iron. It was for this reason that the great water wheels used wooden rims, although they could not banish it from construction entirely, due to the great weights involved, and the wheels still needed iron hubs.

To ensure a supply of clean water, Plunger Shaft was sunk, being a shallow rock-cut sump, fed by a leat brought from the Combe Valley 1.9km to the north-west (the leat was 3km long). A flat rod from one of the western pair of wheels operated a plunger pump in this sump, which forced the water uphill in a cast iron pipe, feeding a series of reservoirs at Wheal Josiah: the highest mine on the site. From here, the water was distributed by a complex series of leats, easterly to Wheal Emma and southerly through the Wheal Anna Maria dressing floors and the 19th century arsenic works there, before feeding back into the Plunger Wheel leat.

The method of water supply used at Plunger Wheel was also used by one of the two wheels in Morwell Wood after 1857, which pumped boiler feed water to the winding engine at the top of the inclined plane which connected the DGC Railway to Morwellham.

Water to power three of the principal pumping wheels was brought from a weir across the Tamar at via a broad leat, 12ft wide by 5ft deep, for 2.7km. This was known as the Great Leat, and has been misidentified by more recent OS maps as an old canal. The other two large wheels at Blanchdown Farm were operated by the Plunger Wheel leat, whose tailrace augmented the Great Leat. A further pumping wheel at Wheal Maria was fed by a leat from the Combe valley.

A third major leat was led around the western side of the site through Blanchdown Wood in a northerly direction. This appears to have been a successor to the earlier and higher Rubbytown Leat, serving the lower dressing floors at Wheal Anna Maria before augmenting the water supplies to Wheal Fanny and Wheal Maria.

Substantial remains of all these leats and many of their storage ponds survive in the landscape around the mine site, and following them can be an absorbing pastime. The DGC leat system is extremely significant as it was laid out as a direct result of tried and tested methods at Wheal Friendship, begun by John Taylor in 1798. Although Taylor was not involved with the DGC system, Wheal Friendship's hydraulic engineer Nathaniel Smith was, making a direct connection with Taylor's internationally acclaimed skills as a mining and hydraulic engineer, several decades after he was active in the area.

Lode 36 - DGC Main Lode - Wheal Maria

Worked from the Combe brook up to the Great Cross-Course at Morris's Shaft, this part of the lode was about 370m long; its western end branching into several smaller strings, worked at Capeltor and Devon Great United Mine. The first dressing floors on the mine were located here, north-east of Gard's Shaft. The water and steam powered foundry which served all five mines was sited to the south-west and much of the building seems to survive in the rubble-strewn slope which results from its dynamiting in 1903. Occasional surprises await the explorer, such as the cut granite ring from the chimney of the engine house at Morris's Shaft which lies on the ground in pieces near the remains of its demolished house. The Great Cross-Course passes underground here, heaving all the lodes between here and Gunnislake between 150m and 170m southwards, a discovery which must have caused considerable consternation to the miners and shareholders in 1845 when it was encountered!

Lode 36 - DGC Main Lode - Wheal Fanny

The first mine on the main lode east of the Great Cross-Course, this is also the only part of the underground workings currently accessible (controlled by »Plymouth Caving Group). The earliest dressing floor on the mines was here, shown on Brenton Symons' 1848 Plan of the Tavistock Mining District as taking water from the 18th century or earlier Rubbytown Leat. It is possible that tin stamping or smelting mills of the 18th century or earlier were located here, but this must remain uncertain, due to the complete remodelling of the valley floor by dumps of dressing waste and sand from Wheal Fanny's dressing floors which occupied a 350m long stretch of the northern valley side. It is towards the eastern end of this that some evidence of a filled gunnis survives, in the form of a scarp into the hillside and sollared ground over the great stope below.

Several structural remains survive along the scarp, particularly of a leat which fed various water-using dressing processes before passing westwards to Wheal Maria. All of the processes here were worked by water wheels; Wheal Fanny never using steam engines due to its position in the valley.

Lode 36 - DGC Main Lode - Wheal Anna Maria

Despite having been the mine's principal dressing area and the location of the later 19th century arsenic works, this is the least well preserved site. This may partly be due to its easy access from the road, but must also be due to its remodelling in the 1914-1930 period of working, when a new arsenic works was constructed by the Bedford Estate, replacing the one they had so improvidently demolished less than 20 years previously!

The site of the principal buildings and the dressing floors is now occupied by a largely level sandy area, used partly as a car park for visitors to the site. The only surviving buildings (discounting the flue of the 1920s arsenic works) are two terraces of miners' cottages which stand on the southern and wester perimeters of the site. Comparison with the 1867 and 1883 maps shows this area to have been a hive of industry, covered with buildings, notably three long dressing sheds which lay immediately north-west of the southern row of cottages.

The principal dumps of this part of the mine were located to the south, connected to the floors by a complex network of narrow gauge railways.

One of these, known as 'Arch Dump', crossed the southern branch of the 1858 DGC Railway, which was carried beneath it in a short tunnel, part of which survives. Larger sand dumps to its south largely date from the early 20th century and were later augmented by waste from the 1960s-70s reworking of the dumps for tin oxide.

The 1860s arsenic works was the largest of its type in the country, but is now one of the least well-preserved, due to its comprehensive demolition in 1903 and the excavation of large parts of its site in the 1960s to form water storage ponds for the tin extraction programme. Only the lower edge of the site survives, with occasional fragments of masonry remaining from a former row of Brunton Calciners. Brick and tile paving survives in patches here and probably represents yards adjoining the calciners.

Conversely, the 1920s arsenic works survives well and parts, particularly the three Brunton calciners and the grinding house, are the best-preserved anywhere. The complex system of flues from the calciners to the labyrinth are clearly visible and much of the final exhaust flue to the stack, including a waterfall chamber, survive in recognisable condition.

Occasional parts of the 19th century water control system survive in this area, notably a large rectangular pond just behind the 1920s arsenic works.

Lode 36 - DGC Main Lode - Wheal Josiah

Several houses survive in this area, which is private and not generally accessible. The engine houses and associated structures were all demolished in 1903 and the shafts capped. The Count House survives in its own private garden in the woods to the south-east.

The deep adit which drained all the mines passed southwards from Wheal Josiah, its portal lying in the mouth of the Rubbytown Valley 540m to the south-east. Here, several settling ponds collected copper precipitate from the mine-water. The area has become an enormous ochre pan, created by the constantly flowing orange-brown water from the adit portal, which has collapsed and is no longer accessible.

Lode 36 - DGC Main Lode - Wheal Emma

The eastern of the mines, this is in many ways one of the more interesting, its large dumps clinging to the side of the Rubbytown Valley. As already observed, it also worked South Lode (Lode 35) and a photograph (to be added soon) showing the surface structures and buildings on both lodes survives. This shows the standard gauge inclined plane which connected the shaft head at Wheal Emma with the main line of the DGC Railway just south of Railway Shaft. Again, all the buildings shown in this photograph were demolished in 1903, with the exception of the Captain's House on the eastern edge of the site. The incline however survives as a long slope, while a small bridge which took an access track over the DGC Railway at its foot still exists.

To the west, the sylvan valley recorded by JMW Turner in 1812 has regenerated itself, though the original source of the Rubbytown leat and the tantalising adit-like archway in his painting have been smothered by the DGC railway's embankment and two large sand-trap ponds in the valley bottom below.