Surface Mining Gazetteer - Morwellham Down - Lodes 11-15

Lode 11 - Name & date unknown, no documentary evidence

NGR:

Surface disturbances on a south-west to north-east alignment are visible on the 1946 RAF APs, crossing the Rock to Morwellham road just above Higher Sheepridge Farm. A linear depression, possibly remains of an openwork, lay just south-west of the B3257 Gulworthy to Bere Alston road in 1946; disturbances continuing across the road for a further 150m.

Lode 11a - Name & date unknown, but abandoned by 1768

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This east-west line of probable lodeback pits was marked on the 1768 Bedford Estate Map as an abandoned tinwork. It is not aligned with Lode 11, but its close proximity may mean that the two are related geologically. Two further disturbances in the fields north of Hartshole may be associated with it, also an adit noted by Charles Barclay in the southern part of Particliffe Wood.

Lode 12 - Name & date unknown, possibly C18

NGR:

A short trial adit or possibly an openwork, 200m north of Lode 10c, driven into the river cliff on a SW to NE alignment. The portal has collapsed and the dump largely cut through by the Endsleigh Drive of 1813, making its original size uncertain. A rock outcrop 60m to the north-east is heavily faulted and may have defeated the miners at this point. Slight evidence for pickmarks on this and another outcrop to the south-east of the adit portal suggest that they have been checked over for mineral deposits by prospectors at an unknown date.

Surface disturbances in the fields at the northern edge of Morwell Wood, as far east as the head of the Lobscombe Valley seem to line up with this adit, but as the area between is heavily faulted, a direct connection is impossible to prove.

Lode 13 - Name & date unknown

NGR:

Slight disturbances in the fields west of Morwell Barton on the 1946 RAF APs may suggest desultory lodeback pitting, while a kink in the wood boundary to the west is associated with a shallow pit beside the path just inside Morwell Wood.

Lode 14 - Morwell Hatch Copper Work, Morwell Reefs, Etc...

(Also: Holming Beam South Lode, East Wheal Russell & South Wheal Crebor Main Lodes)

NGR:

Possibly recorded as Morwell Hatch Copper Work in the early C18 and Morwell Reefs Lode in the C20, the lode continued east as Holming Beam South Lode in the C18-1820s, East Wheal Russell Main Lode in 1852-75, finishing in the Tavy Valley as South Wheal Crebor from the 1830s-1920s.

Begins to the west as a crag working with an open gunnis, visibly climbing the outer face of Pleasure Rock: a 120ft sheer cliff rising above the River Tamar at Impham Turn. Early C18 or earlier, possibly known then and previously as Morwell Hatch, reworked early-mid C19 with a 150m long adit driven on lode. Suggestions of other crag workings are present on the precipitous flanks of Pleasure Rock. These include a short exploratory adit, driven into the rock face at the top of a steep debris slope just north of the main cliff. Cut entirely with hand tools, this is probably C18 and may be a parallel stringer of Lode 14.

'Hatch' as a placename occurs several times in the Tamar Valley mining area and may refer to an archaic form of mine working, common in the 15th-17th centuries, in which small shafts or 'hatches' were dropped into the lode, being backfilled as the working was progressed. I am grateful to Fiona O'Connor and the Mining History webmail discussion list for this information.

The word 'reef' is associated with later 19th and early 20th century colonial mining terminology and may have been applied then. It was first used in relation to this lode by HG Dines in 1956 (see also Cherry Tree Reef; Lode 19).

Extensive surface indications of this lode have been plotted from the 1946 RAF APs and continue in a north-easterly direction across fields as far as Morwell Barton, being heaved 110m southwards there by a cross-course running NNW from Morwell to the Impham Valley.

Traces of lode-back pits largely obliterated by the 19th century dumps and surface structures of East Wheal Russell lie on either side of the road from Rock crossroads to Morwellham, while huge disturbances on the 1946 APs continue through the fields east of the main Gulworthy-Bere Alston road, as far as the Tavy Valley. Where these disturbances coincide with the southern projection of Morwelldown Plantation, a short length of lodeback pitting is visible, each pit being up to 10m diameter. The former edge of Morwell Down is kinked where the lode passed through it at , showing that the workings predated the down hedge, which at this point is considered to be of early post-medieval date, perhaps 16th century.

Evidence for the lode continues across the fields north of Hartshole Farm, trending towards the south-east, being observed as large disturbances on the 1880s OS map and the 1946 RAF APs. These seem to align with the C19 adit working of South Wheal Crebor at the northern end of Particliffe Wood.

Lode 14a - Name & date unknown

NGR:

A short stringer of Lode 14, splitting off it on the western slope of the Tavy valley. Charles Barclay notes a trial adit 120m south of South Wheal Crebor, which may line up with this lode.

Lode 15 - Wheal Russell South Lode?

NGR:

Almost certainly referred to as Wheal Russell South Lode in the C19, this lode is traceable as a line of lodeback pits up the valley side from the low-lying ground beside the Frementor Railway, where a pit sequence can be seen immediately south-east of the Wheal Russell Dressing Floors, whose mid-C19 earthworks cut into them. The eastern end of the pits is cut by the Devon Great Consols Railway of 1857-58; they have not been traced in the fields to the east. This eastern group of pits are well-defined and pass through a crag-working a short distance west of the railway.