Surface Mining Gazetteer - Morwellham Down - Lodes 36-43

Lode 36 - Devon Great Consols Main Lode

Most of the earlier workings on this lode were destroyed by the 19th century re-working, largely being smothered by dumping of underground development and surface dressing wastes. West of the Great Cross-Course, traces survive however, with a short length of part-filled openwork between the later Gard's and Morris's Shafts. East of Wheal Fanny and the Great Cross-Course, the intensive industrialisation of 19th century mining operations on the line of the lode has removed all traces of earlier activity, although the scarped ground on the northern edge of the Wheal Fanny dressing floors may record the line of a former openwork, while heavy timber sollaring of the roof of the great stope beneath may indicate a formerly open gunnis, roofed over in the 19th century.

The likely positions of former openworks and lodeback pits can be surmised from the 1880s Ordnance Survey (see Surface Workings Map), where strips of waste ground follow the line of the lode. Several service tracks hug these, possibly following the courses of earlier tracks following the edges of openworks, as has been observed elsewhere. The most obvious are at Wheal Josiah and Wheal Emma.

One other possible line of earlier workings lies on the western side of the Rubbytown Valley, centred on and maybe up to 200m long. This is uncertain, due to extensive remodelling of this area for leats and the DGC Railway of 1858. JMW Turner's 1812 painting 'Crossing the Brook' shows a hollow in the hillside in this approximate position, containing an arched opening, possibly an adit.

Lode 36a

NGR:

A line of occasional lodeback pits in Grenoven Wood, north of Wheal Fanny, records the line of a possible lode, not reworked in the 19th century. Its continuation beyond the Great Cross-Course may have been worked in the 19th century.

Lode 37 - Wheal Capeltor, Devon Great United

NGR:

Worked under John Taylor as Wheal Capeltor in 1810 and Devon Great United 1840s-1880s. A relatively unsuccessful mine on the western stringers of the Devon Great Consols Main Lode, 19th century activity has removed any earlier mining evidence close to the Combe Brook, but a line of scrub woodland further west may conceal older workings.

Lode 37a - Possibly part of Wheal Capeltor

NGR:

A short length of about 80m of possible openwork, marked as a quarried scarp on the 1880s OS map and approximating to the line of the southern branch of the breakup of the DGC main lode west of Gard's Shaft at Wheal Maria.

Lodes 38a & 38b - Name and date unknown

NGR:

This lode is in two clearly identifiable parts, separated by the Great Cross-Course, which heaved them about 170m apart. Lode 38a appears on the 1880s OS map as an intermittent line of scrub-covered lodeback pits in fields 170m north of Wheal Maria Cottages, while Lode 38b was identified as a line of lodeback pits in a plantation 340m south of Combe Farm, in the CAU survey of the DGC sett.

A large area of possible tin streamworks lies in the valley bottom to the west, centred on . This measures about 40m wide by 150m long and is aligned with the stream. It was identified in the CAU survey report.

Lode 39 - Wheal Fortescue

NGR:

A dump from a 19th century shaft may indicate the position of an earlier working. As this lies in fields, it seems likely that any earlier pitting has been filled.

Lodes 40-43 - Names & dates unknown

Several lodes in close proximity are known from Symons' 1848 Map of the Tavistock Mining District on the Lamerhooe Peninsula and may be associated with Lodes 36-38.

It is not known yet whether they were worked at surface before the 19th century, but they pass westwards into Cornwall, being worked around Luckett before the 19th century; at least one large openwork being known on the south side of the village. This area was clearly of some strategic importance in the 11th - 12th century, as a Norman earthwork castle of motte and bailey form was sited at the neck of the Lamerhooe Peninsula. It is uncertain whether this was here to guard mineral resources or merely controlled a river crossing.