Surface Mining Gazetteer - Morwellham Down - Lodes 31-35

Lode 31 - Marquis South Lode; Phillips Lode

NGR:

Worked before 1700 for tin, a narrow infilled gunnis is visible in the wood just east of the river. This is about 70m long, continuing beyond for a further 100m as a line of lodeback pits/infilled shafts. Although no surviving traces now survive at the eastern edge of the wood, old lodeback pits are shown at approximately in a sketch map associated with an early 18th century copper lease. The course of the lode eastwards is known underground from the deep adit, which starts beside the river about 300m north-east of New Bridge.

Lode 32 - Marquis North Lode

NGR:

First recorded as being worked in the early 18th century for copper, but probably worked previously for tin, as disused stamping mills are recorded nearby in 1716 and 1743. A long wooded area east of Hangingcliff Wood contains remains of lodeback pits, heavily disturbed by 19th century dumps and the more recent Tavistock Woodlands Estate Sawmill. A surface disturbance continues this line eastwards on the 1946 RAF APs as far as Gulworthy Cross, where it abruptly halts, but a large C19 dump further east at , worked as part of Colcharton Mine in the mid-C19, is on the same alignment, as is a slight disturbance in the field 150m to its east.

The western end of the working close to the river preserves a substantial openwork with two gunnises, worked from 1707 as the Bedford & Marquis Copper Works. These were later amalgamated. The upper working with a tall gunnis in a crag is shown here. This is now gated to protect bats, access being controlled by Plymouth Caving Group.

Lode 33 - Tavistock Lode

NGR:

This lode, worked for copper and tin at various points along its length, may start near Bitthams on the Cornish bank of the Tamar, but its most westerly early workings are visible at Wheal Frementor, close to an outcrop of granite, where the lode ends abruptly at the Great Cross-Course, which split the workings at Devon Great Consols Main Lode (Lode 35) 1200m to the north-west. A later shaft may record the line of the heaved lode to the north-west at , but no earlier workings are known here.

This substantial and important working is first recorded as a tinwork in the later 17th century as Fremator or Fremingtor (Bedford Papers, DRO). A vertical bunch of rich tin was found here and worked in a very impressive gunnis which remains open to the sky, measuring 8m wide, 30m deep and 200m long.

Evidence for the initial openwork includes removal of overburden and its dumping to form a series of narrow level platforms south of the lode. Several rubble-revetted barrow-ways cut into the hanging wall give access from these platforms for the miners, and possibly indicate the former positions of 'hatches' or early box-like shafts into the working. The presence of finger dumps in line with these suggest that they were also used for the extraction and disposal of waste rock. In the bottom of the openwork, several linear holes give access to the gunnis, which then falls almost vertically for up to 30m. This arrangement can be seen just below surface at Wheal Crowndale (Lode 24) and is thought to denote an early, possibly 16th-17th century working.

The central part of the lode crossed a loop in the Tamar where it was worked on the Cornish bank for about 750m as the North Lode of Hawkmoor Mine in the C19. It is not known whether there is any evidence for earlier workings here.

At the eastern end of the lode where it rejoins the Devon bank of the river, the Tavistock Work was first recorded as a copper work in the early 18th century, but was almost certainly worked for tin earlier. A line of lodeback pits climbs steeply from the riverbank through Hangingcliff Wood. A flattened dump at the foot of the slope is crossed by the track to Blanchdown Farm and a terrace here may preserve the site of early C18 dressing floors.

Beyond the eastern end of the known early workings, the lode appears to be aligned at surface on Bedford United Mine's North Shaft. A sequence of disturbances at Colcharton further east on the 1946 RAF APs (Lode 33a) may continue the line eastwards as far as the Lumburn Valley.

Lode 33a - Colcharton Mine

NGR:

Several disturbances on the 1946 RAF APs between Gulworthy Cross and Colcharton Farm may continue the line of Lode 33. A further linear disturbance just south-east of Colcharton Farm may be a narrow openwork, but this is uncertain, as it could indicate the course of an abandoned lane. A further solitary disturbance at on the east side of the Lumburn Valley is on this line.

Lode 33b - Part of Wheal Frementor?

NGR:

A short length of possible lodeback pits, marked on the CAU survey of the DGC sett. It is no known whether these are anything more than an exploratory working.

Lode 33c - Unknown name or date

NGR:

A long line of lodeback pits, possibly worked with Wheal Frementor to the south before 1844. Their western end respects the position of the Great Cross-Course; a clear costeaning trench aligned north-south and 130m long lying just to the west, centred on . No features were recorded in the CAU survey 150m to the north-west, where this lode should continue westward. It is not impossible that they have been missed in the dense woodland.

Lode 34 - Wheal Jack Thomas 1840s-60s, Watson's Mine 1860s-1901

NGR:

The eastern part of the lode was worked in the 19th century as Watson's Mine, which obscured many of the earlier workings. These survive as a series of lodeback pits, climbing the valley side from the 19th century Bawden's Shaft, crossing the DGC Railway at Watson's Shaft and continuing as surface disturbances in the fields as far as the B3257 road. Although no further surface evidence can be found to the east, a trial adit just east of Newton Farm on the course of the Mill Hill branch of the Tavistock Canal may have picked up this lode. If so, it was considered worthless, being very short.

Further west, two short lengths of lodeback pits are centred on (130m). The lode west of here must have been heaved north by the Great Cross-Course and it is difficult to identify it further west, as four separate lines of lodeback pits pass across the area to the north-west, beyond the cross-course. These are described separately below as Lodes 34a to 34e.

Lodes 34a & 34b - Names & dates unknown

NGR:

These two parallel workings are interesting for their association with the Great Cross-Course, which 34a respects and 34b passes straight through. It may be that 34b was continued fruitlessly in the hope of picking up the lode again, at a time when the existence of the cross-course was not known or understood. It consists of two parallel rows of lodeback pits, suggesting two parallel stringers of the same lode, recorded in the CAU survey report on the DGC sett.

Lode 34c

NGR:

This line of lodeback pits also respects the Great Cross-Course at its western end. Lode 34d is almost certainly its continuation, 150m to the north-west. These are substantial workings, making it surprising that they were not subsequently trialled after 1844 as part of Devon Great Consols' development work.

Lode 34d

NGR:

Comments as above, Lode 34c. The lodeback pits pass across the western shoulder of Blanchdown, and peter out at the historic wood edge on the steep valley side. This area was open before the 1950s, when it was densely planted with conifers.

Lode 34e

NGR:

This line of lodeback pits outcropped on the north-western flank of Blanchdown like Lode 34d and may have been reworked in the 19th century with South Lode (lode35).

Lode 35 - Devon Great Consols South Lode

NGR:

This lode was not so heavily worked on in the 19th century as to disguise its earlier origins. Two sequences of lodeback pits divided by the Great Cross-Course run east-west in Blanchdown Wood, the western group being identified in Cornwall Archaeological Unit's Devon Great Consols Mine survey by Colin Buck (CAU 2002). The latter group runs for at least 230m on the steeply sloping eastern side of the Tamar Valley and may go further in either direction in the dense woodland. Like Lodes 34d and 34e, this was formerly part of the open heath of Blanchdown.

The eastern group was identified by the author between the two branches of the 1858 DGC Railway, 400m west of the Rubbytown Valley. Again, the lodeback pits, which are large and closely spaced, may go further east and west in this dense fir wood.