Case Studies - Morwellham Quay

Morwellham is one of the earliest documented river quays on the tidal Tamar. It was first referred to in a lease of c.1235 and seems to have been the main trading connection with the outside world for the Benedictine Abbey of Tavistock, whose quay house there was mentioned in the lease. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s, the quay seems to have followed the history of many others on the river, being used for trading in basic commodities such as timber, bark for tanning, charcoal and later coal, lime burning and of course minerals such as tin and copper.

The first developments associated with the burgeoning Industrial Revolution began in 1714 when the Gill family first took a lease of the quay. They seem to have developed the quay in a relatively small way, to enable it to trade in large and bulky commodities such as unsawn timber, limestone and sea sand (for fertiliser). This development took the form of a large level quay, extended across former saltmarshes, flanking the west side of Morwellham Pill, a managed channel through the saltmarshes. The first dock (now known as the Old Dock), was created here by constructing parallel revetment walls to hold back the mud and forming a stony bottom to the dock. This was confirmed by archaeological excavation in 2004.

The quay's industrial development was kickstarted in 1787 when a new lease was arranged. A new dock and several buildings including a walled storage yard, a manager's house, a limekiln and an extension to the quay house were put up between 1787 and 1791, while more buildings and a third dock (now the Manganese Dock) had been added by the time the lease was finally signed in 1803. It is probable that the two lower limekilns had been joined to make the present kiln bank by 1812 when this watercolour of the quay was painted by John Savery. Although rather naïve, it accurately depicts an enormous granary and maltings (left) put up in the 1787-91 period, with the Old Dock in the centre of the picture.

The industrialisation of the quay continued with the arrival of the Tavistock Canal in 1817, which was connected to the port via an inclined plane with numerous plateway sidings radiating out onto the quays. A manganese mill was added by 1820 and the quays were extended both up and downstream, with several cranes, such as this complex cast iron crane base, probably erected by Gill & Company in the 1840s, found in 2008.

Further expansion came after 1844 with the discovery in Blanchdown Wood, 3 miles to the north, of an enormous copper lode; the largest in the South-West of England. The five mines which made up this vast sett became known as Devon Great Consols. The ore had to be exported by sea to Swansea for smelting, and within two years, every quay on the river was choked with ore; many including Morwellham frantically extending their quays to cope with the yellow flood.

When Queen Victoria alighted at the Higher Copper Quay in 1856 on her way to the Duke of Bedford's country retreat near Milton Abbot, the Royal party had to pick their way through piles of copper ore heaped there.

Difficulties in finding quay space were relieved in 1858 when the Devon Great Consols Company opened a standard gauge railway from the mine to Morwellham. This was locomotive hauled to the top of Morwell Wood, and the trucks lowered down an inclined plane to a new and extensive tiled quay with a large dock capable of taking ships of up to 300 tons burthen. Railway sidings on trestles carried the ore trucks out over these and adjoining quays, dropping the ore there in great heaps. This photograph, taken from the Cornish bank of the river in about 1868 shows the port at the height of its wealth.

The copper began to run out in the 1870s, but the mine continued in production for a further quarter of a century by producing arsenic oxide for the paint, dye and later chemical industries. Unfortunately, from the late 1860s, Morwellham was completely reliant on the mine's fortunes; the Tavistock canal having been abandoned due to railway competition. When Devon Great Consols closed in 1901, Morwellham was finished as a commercial port.

For the following seventy years, the quays largely became overgrown; the docks silting up and almost disappearing. Many buildings fell into ruin and the remaining cottages became impoverished and intermittently occupied.

It should not be seen as an industry-free area though, as many freelance miners continued working and living there, such as Frank and Jack Cloke, and Reggie Toll. Frank and Reggie both operated assaying laboratories at Morwellham in the 1920s to 1940s with Frank Cloke keeping chickens as a sideline (he was known locally as 'Cluck'). In addition to various low-key mining projects, Reggie Toll carried out engineering projects such as the conversion of the Tavistock Canal to drive a hydro-electric power station in 1933. (Stewart 2005).

In 1969-72, a group sponsored by Dartington Hall Trust, enthused by Frank Booker's 'Industrial Archaeology of the Tamar Valley', published by David & Charles in 1967, opened Morwellham Quay as an open air industrial museum. Initially fairly low-key, the museum has developed in interesting, often avant-garde ways to interpret the port's industrial past to a new audience.

With the onset of the 1990s recession, the Museum, like many other such attractions, began to feel the pinch. It is not the place of this website to comment on the decisions which led to this, but by the early 2000s, the museum's accounts were in a sorry state. The inscription of the Tamar Valley as part of the Cornwall & West Devon Mining World Heritage Site in 2006 produced a temporary reprieve, with much grant funding coming in between 2007 and 2009.

Unfortunately, this did not stem the effects of the latest recession and in 2009, Devon County Council withdrew funding for the museum. The trustees were forced to sell it, and after several months' uncertainty, it was purchased in 2010 by a private company. The museum reopened in 2011, continuing many of its previous activities, and it is hoped that it will succeed.

The archaeological and historical research presented here was carried out between 2002 and 2010, being encouraged by two of the museum's general managers during this period: Anthony Power and Barry Gamble, to whom the author extends his heartfelt thanks. Research continues in the valley outside Morwellham, where archaeological work has now finished.