dumnonia

Monday, 7 May 2018

MANATON

MANATON

Beauty of the site—The church—Destruction of the cross—Lustleigh Cleave—North Bovey—Lustleigh church—Prouze tombs—The sacrifice of a cat—Bishop Stapeldon's stone—Becka fall— The eastern side of the moor—Hound Tor—The sycamore—Hey Tor—Camp or pound—Rippon Tor—Foale's Arrishes—Finger-marks on pottery—Salubrity of Dartmoor—Settlers—Widdecombe in October—The church—Thunderstorm—"Lady" Darke—Old farmhouses—The Song of " Widdecombe Fair."

THE position of Manaton is one of remarkable beauty, between Lustleigh Cleave and the ridge on which stands Bowerman's Nose, and which swells up to Hound Tor.
The church is dedicated to S. Winefred, the Welsh martyr maid, and has its fine screen carefully restored. It formerly possessed a singular feature, which the "restoring" architect destroyed, because singular. This was a small window in the east wall opening from the outside, under the altar. Perhaps there were relics of S. Winefred kept beneath the altar, and through this fenestrella confessionis the devotees could touch them. But, indeed, the destroyer has been at Manaton and effaced more than this window. On the tor that commands the village were formerly many prehistoric monuments. The farm Langstone by its name proclaims that on it was a menhir. In the churchyard was a fine granite cross. A former rector, the Rev. C. Carwithen, wantonly destroyed it in the night. The people had been wont at a funeral to carry the corpse the way of the sun thrice round the cross before interment. He preached against the custom ineffectually, so he secretly smashed the cross. There are two logan rocks within easy reach—the Whooping Stone on Easdon, and the Nutcracker in Lustleigh Cleave.
This cleave is very picturesque. "Cleave" properly is a local softening of the word "cliff," and applies to the rocks, but in common use it has come incorrectly to be applied to the valley below the crags. Through the stone-strewn trough of the vale the sparkling Bovey finds its way with some difficulty, diving under the boulders at Horsham Steps, and running unseen for some considerable distance, only proclaiming its presence by its murmurs and whispers.
That there was some fighting done across this valley is probable, because there are camps on both sides.
In honourable contrast with Mr. Carwithen stands Mr. Jones, the curate of North Bovey, who fished the old village cross out of the brook, where it had lain since the iconoclastic period of the Civil Wars, and re-erected it in 1829.
North Bovey church, pleasantly situated, possesses a screen much mutilated, but capable of restoration. Far superior to it in preservation is that of Lustleigh, which is of the same character as that of Bridford, perhaps post-Reformation, and contains a series of figures in the lower compartments representing clergy in their caps and surplices and "liripipets," and not saints. There is some old glass in the church, in one window a representation of S. Margaret. There are monumental effigies in the church of the Prouze family. One of these is of Sir William Prouze, to whom the manor of Lustleigh belonged. By his will he directed that he should be buried with his ancestors at Lustleigh; but he died at a distance, and was interred at Holbeton. Some time after, the wishes of her father having come to the knowledge of Lady Alice, the wife of Sir Roger Mules, Baron of Cadbury, and finding that they had been disregarded, the dutiful daughter petitioned Grandisson, Bishop of Exeter in 1329, that the remains might be removed from Holbeton to Lustleigh, and the prayer was granted.
Forming the sill of the south door is a long granite stone with a Romano-British inscription, the reading of which has not been satisfactorily made out.
In the chancel may be noticed the stone brackets, perforated for the cords employed for the suspension of the Lenten veil.
A story associated with Lustleigh church has its parallels elsewhere. After it had been built the devil threatened to destroy it, stained glass and all, unless he were given a sacrifice. Now it happened that a bumpkin was present in the churchyard with a pack of cards in his pocket, and the Evil One immediately demanded him as his due; but the man, with great presence of mind, pounced on a cat that was stalking by and dashed out its brains against the wall of the porch. This satisfied the powers of darkness, and the consecration of the church followed. The story is a clumsy late cooking up of the old belief that before a building could be occupied a life must be sacrificed to the telluric deities. A horse, a dog, a sow—in this case a cat was offered up. Echoes of the same are found everywhere.[1] Most Devonshire churchyards were formerly supposed to be haunted by some animal or other, which had been buried under the corner-stone. When S. Columba took possession of lona the question arose as to who was to die and be buried so as to secure the place for ever to the community. One of his monks, Oran by name, offered himself, and he was buried alive under the foundations of the new abbey.
The rectory house possesses its ancient hall open to the roof. In the hedge between the church and station is the "Bishop's Stone," a large block, bearing the arms of Bishop Stapeldon (1307-26), who was murdered in the riots occasioned by Edward II. favouring the Despensers. He was fallen on by the London mob in Cheapside, stripped, and beheaded by them.
Strewn about Lustleigh are numerous masses of granite, rounded, and like loaves of bread. This is due to the weathering of the granite, which is soft, but some, if not most, appear to have been carried to where they lie by water.
The stream Becka forms a fall into the valley of the Bovey, through woods, but except in very rainy
Hound Tor-A Book of Dartmoor.jpg
Hound Tor
weather it is insignificant, and hardly merits to be considered a waterfall; it is properly only a water-trickle.
The eastern flank of the moor is infinitely richer in vegetation than the western. The whole of Dartmoor stands up as a wall against the prevalent north-west and south-west winds that distort the trees on the west side. Moreover, owing to the shelter thus furnished, and to the disintegration of the granite trending in this direction so as to form deep beds of gravel, the valleys and hillsides are clothed with rich vegetation. Pines flourish.
Hound Tor is a noble mass of rocks. It derives its name from the shape assumed by the blocks on the summit, that have been weathered into forms resembling the heads of dogs peering over the natural battlements, and listening to hear the merry call of the horn. Below it, on the Manaton side, nestles Hound Tor Farm, picturesquely enfolded in a sycamore grove.
The sycamore, by the way, is peculiarly the tree for Dartmoor and other exposed situations. The beech cowers and turns from the blast, and it divides so soon as its taproot touches rock; but the sycamore stands up, indifferent to wind and rain, to which it opposes the broad green leaves that it turns against the blast, and so shelters itself as with scale armour.
On Hound Tor is a circle of stones containing a kistvaen.
The road that leads to Widdecombe and Ashburton ascends to Hound Tor; but there is another road to Ashburton by Hey Tor that branches off to the left before Hound Tor Farm is reached, and scrambles up to Trendlebere Down, passing an almost destroyed stone row starting from a cairn beside the highway. The road runs at a great elevation (1,080 feet) for some miles. There is a pleasant and homely inn at Hey Tor Vale, where the traveller may rest and gather strength to visit Holwell Tor and Hey Tor Rocks. Holwell Tor was at one time surrounded by a stone rampart, but quarrymen have sadly injured it, and it is not now easy to decide whether the inclosure was merely a pound, like Grimspound, or a stone camp, like Whit Tor.
Hey Tor Rocks form two fine masses, and are unlike most of the moorland tors, in that the granite is very consistent, and is not broken into the usual layers of soft beds alternating with hard layers. The view of the valley below Hey Tor and Grea Tor on one side, and the ridge of Bone Hill on the other, is fine.
The road, commanding to the east a vast stretch of the rich lowlands of Devon, passes Saddle Tor and reaches Rippon Tor, where is a good logan stone. Here are several cairns much mutilated by
the road-makers. On the further side of the road, by Pill Tor, are remains of an extensive prehistoric settlement. Many huts and inclosures remain. The place bears the name of Foale's Arrishes, from a man of that appellation who spent his energies in converting the prehistoric inclosures into fields for his own use, to the destruction of much that was
Hey Tor Rocks-A Book of Dartmoor.jpg
Hey Tor Rocks
interesting, and to his own very dubitable advantage. The huts have, however, yielded fine specimens of ornamented pottery. The decoration is here and there made with a woman's finger-nail. Consider that! Some poor barbaric squaw five thousand years ago fashioned the damp clay with her hands and devised a rude pattern, which she incised with her
Fragment of Pottery.-A Book of Dartmoor.jpg
Fragment of Pottery.

nails. She is long ago gone to dust, and her dust dispersed, but the impress of her nails remains.
This is much like what we are all doing, and doing unconsciously—leaving little finger-touches on our creations, giving shape to the minds and habits of our children and of those with whom we are brought into contact, shaping, adorning, or disfiguring our epoch, and the impressions we leave are indelible; they will in turn be transmitted to ages to come.
Some of the ornamentation, as in a specimen from Smallacombe Rocks, is made with a twisted cord. The pottery is all hand-made, shaped without the wheel, and very imperfectly burnt. It is not red, because there was little iron in the clay.
One large hut at Foale's Arrishes had a seat carried round part at least of the interior, made of branches that were held from spreading by sharp stones planted upright in the floor. The kitchen was on the left side of the entrance in a subsidiary structure.
It has, of late, become a thing not unusual for young fellows, if suffering from delicacy of the lungs, to rent or buy a farm on Dartmoor. No research after parasitic microbes thenceforth concerns them. The fresh air, the constant exercise, the joyous existence on the wild moor are fatal to tubercular bacteria. Rude health, buoyant spirits, unflagging energy result from such treatment.
It is, it must be admitted, surpassing hard to induce servants from the "in-country" to take situations on Dartmoor. The air there is as unsuited to them as to other microbes. But the settler lights his own fires, cooks his own meals, makes his own bed; and, as one of them assured me, his experience proved to him that a man can keep a hunter at the same cost as he can a servant-maid: therefore, why be worried with the latter?
At Post Bridge they have had a succession of curates who have lived this life in cabins or hovels, and have learned to love it. It has one drawback, and one only—it makes the hands rough and grimy. But what are gloves for, but to cover dirty hands when we go to town to make display?
As to food. Rabbits are to be had at any moment; geese, ducks live and luxuriate on the moor; an occasional blackcock or moorhen and a brace of snipe give zest; and trout are to be obtained for the labour or pleasure of angling for them. The price of horses is mounting; any number may be grown on the moor. Sheep, cattle—you turn them
Ornamented Pottery-A Book of Dartmoor.jpg
Ornamented Pottery.

out, and they thrive on the sweet grass, and know not the maladies that afflict flocks and herds in the world twelve hundred feet below.
Let it hot be supposed that in winter Dartmoor is a desolation and a horror. It is by no means an unpleasant place for a sojourn then. When below are mud and mist, aloft on the moor the ground is hard with frost and the air crisp and clear. Down below we are oppressed with the fall of the leaf, affecting us, if inclined to asthma and bronchitis; and in the short, dull days of December and January our spirits wax dark amidst naked trees and when our ankles are deep in mud. There are no trees on Dartmoor to expose their naked limbs, and tell us that, vegetation is dead. The shoulders of down are draped in brown sealskin mantles—the ling and heather, as lovely in its sleep as in its waking state; the mosses, touched by frost, turn to rainbow hues. For colour effects give me Dartmoor in winter.
And then the peat fires! What fires can surpass them? They do not flame, but they glow, and diffuse an aroma that fills the lungs with balm. The turf-cutting is one of the annual labours on the moor. Every farm has its peat-bog, and in the proper season a sufficiency of fuel is cut, then carried and stacked for winter use. I may be mistaken, but it seems to me that cooking done over a peat fire surpasses cooking at the best club in London. But it may be that on the moor one relishes a meal in a manner impossible elsewhere.
Widdecombe-in-the-Moor is a village in a valley walled off from the world by high ridges on the east and on the west. The entire bed of the valley has been washed and rewashed by streamers for tin. Bag Park is a gentleman's seat laid out on this collection of refuse, and the pines and firs luxuriate in the granite rubble and grow, as if it were to them a pleasure to thrust up their leaders and expand their boughs.
I shall never forget a drive through Widdecombe one October day, when the sun was shining bright, and the air was soft. The sycamores had shed their leaves; but the expedition was one through coral land. The rowan or mountain-ash, which was everywhere, was burdened with clusters of scarlet berries, and the hedges were wreathed with rose-hips and dense with ruddy haws.
The church of Widdecombe has a very fine tower, built, it is said, by the tinners. The roof has many of the original bosses, carved and painted with heads, flowers, and leaves. One has the figure on it of S. Catherine with her wheel. One boss has on it three rabbits, each with a single ear, which unite in the centre, forming a triangle. One exactly similar is in Tavistock church.
Part of the lower portion of the roodscreen remains with figures of saints on it.
The story of the great thunderstorm in which Widdecombe church was struck, on Sunday, October 21st, 1638, when the congregation were present at divine service, has often been told, notably by Mr. Blackmore in his novel Christowel.
Prince, in his Worthies of Devon, thus narrates the circumstances:—
"In the afternoon, in service time, there happened a very great darkness, which still increased to that degree, that they could not see to read; soon after, a terrible and fearful thunder was heard, like the noise of so many great guns, accompanied with dreadful lightning, to the great amazement of the people; the darkness still increasing, that they could not see each other, when there presently came such an extraordinary flame of lightning, as filled the church with fire, smoak, and a loathsome smell, likebrimstone; a ball of fire came in likewise at the window, and passed through the church, which so affrighted the congregation, that most of them fell down in their seats; some upon their knees, others on their faces, and some one upon another, crying out of burning and scalding, and all giving themselves up for dead. There were in all four persons killed, and sixty-two hurt, divers of them having their linen burnt, tho' their outward garments were not so much as singed. . . . The church itself was much torn and defaced with the thunder and lightning, a beam whereof, breaking in the midst, fell down between the minister and clerk, and hurt neither. The steeple was much wrent; and it was observed where the church was most torn, there the least hurt was done among the people. There was none hurted with the timber or stone; but one man, who, it was judged, was killed by the fall of a stone."

The monument of this man, Roger Hill, is in the church, as also an account in verse of the storm, composed by the village schoolmaster.
For many years the incumbent of Widdecombe was a man who was reputed to be the son of George IV. when Prince Regent. His sister, married to a captain, who deserted her, occupied a cottage, now in ruins, under Crockern Tor. She also was believed to be of blood-royal with a bar sinister. Both the parson and his sister had been brought up about Court. He, when given the living of Widdecombe—to get him out of sight and mind—brought with him a large consignment of excellent port, and that drew to his parsonage such rare men as would brave the moors and storms for the sake of a carouse.
His sister, in the desolate cottage under Crockern Tor, languished and died, leaving her only child, Caroline, to the charge of her uncle. She was sent for her education to a famous school in Queen's Square, London, where she associated with girls belonging to families of the first rank.
A certain air of distinction, as well as the story that circulated relative to her mother's origin, made her an object of interest, and her imperious manner commanded respect.
The vicarage was by no means a good place in which a young girl should grow to maturity. The house was not frequented by men of the best character, and the wildest stories are told of the goings-on there in the forties and fifties.
Caroline was, however, a girl of exceptionally strong character; she was early called on to hold her own with the associates of her uncle and frequenters of the vicarage, and she was quite able to enforce upon them a proper behaviour towards herself.
Unhappily, she had been reared without any religious principles; her law was consequently her own caprice, fortunately held in check by a strong sense of personal dignity.
The position she was in was as forlorn and unpromising as any in which a young girl could find herself.
She was full of generous impulses, but they were wholly untrained; she possessed furious passions, which were held in check solely by her pride. She would do at one time a generous act and next a dirty trick, "just," as the people said, "as though she were a pixy."
A gentleman named Darke, visiting her uncle on some business, married Caroline, and soon after her uncle died suddenly, having made a will in her favour.
The vicarage was well furnished and contained articles of great value, in pictures, plate, etc., supposed to have been presented to him, but most likely obtained with money lent at Court to those temporarily embarrassed.
The manor had been sold, and was purchased by Mrs. Darke's trustees at her request, and from that time she insisted on being entitled "Lady" Darke; and into this she moved with her dogs, horses, and husband.
This latter had soon discovered what an imperious character she possessed. His will might clash with hers, but hers would never give way. Her character was the toughest and most energetic, and by degrees he fell into a condition of submission and insignificance which it was painful to witness, and which "Lady" Darke herself resented, without being aware that it was due to her own overbearing behaviour.
She kept nine or ten horses in her stables—some had never been broken in; some she rode on, others were driven in pairs. But towards the end of her life the horses were not taken out, and ate their heads off many times over.
If a visitor of distinction was expected, she sent for him her carriage and pair with silver-mounted harness. For ordinary use she employed her brass-mounted harness; but Bill, her husband, was despatched to market in the little trap in which she fetched coals. Latterly Mr. Darke was sent to make purchases at Ashburton, with a long list of "chores," i.e. of articles he was to bring back with him, written out during the week on a slip of paper from a pocket-book. Here is one: "Kidney-beans and cucumbers; tea, and green paint with driers; brushes and putty; sweets; and a frock-body for myself; a milkpan, fourteen inches; side-combs, 3s. 6d.; ostler's boy and fish; lavender; pain-killer; wine, salad oil, harness paste, and rice; also ribs of beef, grate for blue bedroom, india-rubber; rabbits, grind scissors, cheese, inn and ostler."
She ruled her husband, and indeed everyone with whom she came in contact. He, cut off from social intercourse with his fellows, out of the current of intellectual life, with no other work to do than to fulfil her behests, sank in his own estimation, and fell into degradation without making an effort to rise out of it.
An instance of her despotic character may be given. One day she wanted to have her hay made; she was anxious lest a change of weather should come on. She issued an imperious order to the curate of the parish to come and help save the hay. He sent an apology. This rendered her furious. She went in quest of him, met him in the village, and falling on him soundly boxed his ears in public.
She was an implacable hater; and living on the wilds, half educated, she was superstitious, and believed in witchcraft, and in her own power to ill-wish such individuals as offended her. She was caught on one occasion with a doll into which she was sticking pins and needles, in the hope and with the intent thereby of producing aches and cramps in a neighbour. On another occasion she laid a train of gunpowder on her hearth, about a figure of dough, and ignited it, for the purpose of conveying an attack of fever to the person against whom she was animated with resentment.
It need hardly be said that believing in her own powers others believed in them as well, and dreaded offending her.
She was kind-hearted, and impulsive in her generosity. She divided the parish into two halves—one she gave over to the doctor and kept the other to herself. "He kills with his physic," she said, "I keep alive and recover with my soups and port wine."
She was vastly angry with the vicar, her uncle's successor, about some trifle, and she went after him with her whip and threatened to chastise him with it. He actually summoned her, and swore that he lived in bodily fear of the lady.
She liked to have visitors drop in on her, but not to be warned of their coming; for she took a pride in showing what she could provide for table on the spur of the moment; and forth would come a ham, half a goose, a boiled leg of mutton, a big cheese and celery, produced as by magic, and would be served by herself in an old gown, red turnover handkerchief on her shoulders, and a coalscuttle bonnet on her head.
Mrs. Darke at one time played on the piano after the meal to get her guests to dance, but the cats tore the instrument open and made their nests and kittened among the strings, and the damp air rusted the wires. Then she bought a barrel-organ, and forced her husband to turn the handle in the corner and grind out the music for the dancers. However, on one occasion, having tasted too often a bottle within reach, though out of sight, he fell forward in the middle of a dance and brought the instrument down with him. The instrument was so broken that it could no longer be used. Mr. Darke died at last in one of the fits to which he was liable, having retired to rest by mistake under in place of on the bed.
By this time the lady had become very deaf.
On hearing the news of the decease some friends went to see her.
"Very grieved, madam, at your sad loss!"
"Ah! Bill is dead. He might have done worse; he might have lived. You will stop and dine, of course."
They had to tarry to see to matters of business. "Now, look here," said "Lady" Darke, "I'll have no more 'truck' with Bill. He has been trouble to me long enough. I shall send him to his friends in Plymouth. Let them bury him."
"Madam," said the nurse, "we want to lay him out. Will you give me a sheet?"
"A sheet! One of my good linen sheets! Not I. Take a pig-cloth"; that is to say, one in which bacon was salted. And actually her husband was laid in his coffin in one of these "pig-cloths."
In Mrs. Cudlip's novel, She Cometh Not, He Saithis a description of a meeting with the lady that is very true to life, as is also the account of the downstairs arrangement of the manor house.
In later years "Lady" Darke became infirm. She neglected everything, and no one dared do anything in the house without her orders. Until she came downstairs in the morning there could be no breakfast, as she kept the keys. The house was infested with cats and dogs, and her servants did not dare to get rid of any of them, or to drive them out of the rooms. The large room over the kitchen she alone entered. The door was padlocked, and the key of the padlock she kept attached to her garter. Thence the key had to be taken after her death to obtain admission. It was found to contain a confused mass of sundry articles to the depth of three feet above the floor, the accumulation of many years. Bureaus were there with guineas and banknotes in the drawers, and quantities of old silver plate, bearing the arms and crests of men of title who had been about the Court of the Prince Regent; and the whole was veiled in cobwebs that hung from the ceiling so long and so dense as to hide the further extremity of the chamber.
"Lady" Darke retained her imperious disposition to the end; it was in vain that it was suggested to her that she should have an attendant to be always with her. She often sat up the whole night by her fire, and her servants dared not retire to bed till their mistress had given the signal that they were to depart.
Of relations she had none; at least none who came near her, and when she was dead much difficulty was found in discovering any persons who had claim to her inheritance.
She died quite suddenly, and left no will.
Her trustees had to advertise before they could find relations, and then those who presented themselves were the children of her father by a third wife. Her dogs and cats were first killed, then several old horses that were dragging themselves about the field in extreme old age.
Her plate and pictures were sold.
To the best of my knowledge no portrait of her remains.
She was a fine woman, and must at one time have been handsome. It was fancied by many that her features bore a resemblance to the pictures of George IV. in his young days. The mystery relative to her mother and uncle was never solved, and it is possible enough that the supposed paternity was due to idle gossip.
There were vast collections of letters among the remains, but these were all destroyed, and nothing was allowed to transpire as to their contents.
The story from beginning to end is one of infinite sadness. It is of one with a remarkably strong but undisciplined character, one full of good impulses, who had never been taught religious duty, and given no religious belief, who was therefore condemned to waste a profitless life in a remote village, without purpose, without self-discipline, without hope, without God.
There are some interesting old farmhouses about Widdecombe; one is at Chittleford, another on Corndon. The primitive type of farm on the moor was an inclosed courtyard, entered through a gate. Opposite the gate is the dwelling-house, with a projecting porch, with an arched granite door and a mullioned window over it. On one side of the entrance is the dwelling-room, on the other the saddle and sundry chamber. The well, which is a stream of water from the moor conducted by a small leat to the house, is under cover; and the cattle-sheds open into the yard, so as to be reached with ease from the house without exposure to the storms.
These farm dwellings are rapidly disappearing, and are making way for more pretentious and extremely hideous buildings. Such as remain are remarkably picturesque, and should be photographed before they are destroyed.
Widdecombe must not be quitted without a reference to the famous ballad of the old grey mare taken there to the fair; a ballad that is immensely popular in Devon, and one to the air of which the Devon Regiment went against the Boers.
"Tom Pearce, Tom Pearce, lend me thy grey mare,
   All along, down along, out along, lee.
 For I want for to go to Widdecombe Fair,
   Wi' Bill Brewer, Jan Stewer, Peter Gurney, Peter Davy,
     Dan'l Whiddon, Harry Hawk,
 Old Uncle Tom Cobleigh and all.

         Chorus—Old Uncle Tom Cobleigh and all.

"And when shall I see again my grey mare?
   All along, down along, out along, lee.
 By Friday soon, or Saturday noon,
   Wi' Bill Brewer, etc.
Lower Tarr-A Book of Dartmoor.jpg
Lower Tarr
"Then Friday came, and Saturday noon,
   All along, down along, out along, lee.
 But Tom Pearce's old mare hath not trotted home,
   Wi' Bill Brewer, etc.

"So Tom Pearce he got up to the top of the hill
   All along, down along, out along, lee.
 And he seed his old mare down a-making her will,
   Wi' Bill Brewer, etc."
Old mare-A Book of Dartmoor.jpg
Now it does not appear from the song why the mare was so dead beat. But a clever American artist, who has illustrated the song, has brought her knowledge of human nature to bear on the story. She has shown in her pictures how that the borrower of the horse met with a pretty gipsy girl at the fair, and persuaded her to ride away with him en croupe. This explains at once why the horse was so overcome that it "fell sick and died."
One can understand also how that this ballad being a man's song, a veil is delicately thrown over this incident.
I do not quote the entire ballad.
"When the wind whistles cold on the moor of a night,
   All along, down along, out along, lee.
 Tom Pearce's old mare doth appear ghastly white,
   Wi' Bill Brewer, etc.

"And all the long night be heard skirling and groans,
   All along, down along, out along, lee.
 From Tom Pearce's old mare in her rattling bones,
   Wi' Bill Brewer, etc."
  1. Jump up See my article on "Foundations" in Strange Survivals (Methuen and Co., 1892). See also my Book of the West, i. p. 331.

Chageyford

CHAGFORD

"Chageyford in the dirt"—The making of Chagford—The old clerk—The church—Tincombe Lane—Chagford Common—Flint finds— Scaur Hill circle—Stone rows—The Tolmen—The Teign river— Camps on it—Drewsteignton cromlech—Gidleigh—Old farmhouses —Fernworthy—The Grey Wethers—Teignhead House—Browne's House—Story about it—Grimspound—Birch Tor stone rows— Chaw Gully—The Webburn.

CHAGFORD is in Domesday written Chageford, and this is the local pronunciation of the name at the present day. The natives say, "Chageford in the dirt—O good Lord!"
But Chagford has had the ability and promptitude to get out of the dirt and prove itself to be anything but a stick-in-the-mud place. It is with places as with people, some have good luck fall to them, others make their fortunes for themselves. Okehampton belongs to the former class, Chagford to the latter. It owes almost everything to a late rector, who, resolved on pushing the place, invited down magazine editors and professional littérateurs entertained them, drove them about, and was rewarded by articles appearing in journals and serials, belauding Chagford for its salubrious climate, its incomparable scenery, its ready hospitality, its rural sweetness, and its archaeological interest.
Whither the writers pointed with their pens, thither the public ran, and Chagford was made. It has now every appliance suitable—pure water, electric lighting, telephone, a bicycle shop, and doctors to patch broken heads and set broken limbs of those upset from the "bikes."
Chagford is undoubtedly a picturesque and pleasant spot. It is situated near Dartmoor, and is sheltered from the cold and from the rainy drift that comes from the south-west. The lodging-house keepers know how to make visitors comfortable, and to charge for so doing. The church has been restored, coaches run to bring visitors, and the roads and lanes have been widened.
I recall the church before modern ideas had penetrated to Chagford. At that time the clerk, who also led the orchestra, gave out the psalm from his seat under the reading-desk, then, whistling the tune, he marched slowly down the nave, ascended to the gallery with leisure, and the performance began.
The church, dedicated to S. Michael, was rebuilt in the middle of the fifteenth century, when the Gorges family owned much land in the parish. Their cognisance, the whirlpool, a canting cognisance (gurges) appears in the bosses of the roof. It contains two monuments of some importance: one is a handsome stone altar tomb, with a canopy supported on columns, in memory of Sir John Whiddon, of Whiddon Park, Judge of Queen's Bench, who died in 1575; the other is to commemorate John Prouze, who died in 1664.
The Three Crowns Inn, opposite the church, is a picturesque building of the seventeenth century. Chagford was one of the Stannary towns, but no remains of the court-house exist.
On Mattadon, above the town, stands a rude early cross of granite.
The ascent to the moor by Tincombe Lane, as I remember it half a century ago, was no better than a watercourse, strewn with boulders, to be scrambled up or down at the risk of dislocation of the ankle. It then well merited the descriptive lines:—

"Tincombe Lane is all uphill
   Or downhill, as you take it;
 You tumble up, and crack your crown,
   Or tumble down and break it.

"Tincombe Lane is crook'd and straight,
   Here pothook, there as arrow,
 'Tis smooth to foot, 'tis full of rut,
   'Tis wide, and then, 'tis narrow.

"Tincombe Lane is just like life,
   From when you leave your mother;
 'Tis sometimes this, 'tis sometimes that,
   'Tis one thing or the other."

Now all is changed. A steam-roller goes up and down Tincombe Lane, the angles have been rounded, the precipitous portions made easy, the ruts filled up. And life likewise is now made easy for the rising generation—possibly too easy. Ruggedness had a charm of its own, and bred vigour of constitution and moral physique.
Chagford having lost, by death, the whistling clerk, started a blind organist. Now, also, he is gone. Every peculiarity is being crushed out of modern life by the steam-roller, civilisation.
Chagford Common, as I recall it, half a century ago, was strewn thick with hut circles. One ascended to it by Tincombe Lane and came into a prehistoric world, a Pompeii of a past before Rome was. It was dense with hut circles, pounds, and every sort of relic of the ancient inhabitants of the moor. But inclosures have been made, and but a very few relics of the aboriginal settlement remain. One of the most curious, the "Roundy Pound," only escaped through urgent remonstrance made to spare it. The road carried over the common annually eats up the remains of old, as the road-menders take away the stones from the hut circles to metal the highway.
At Batworthy, one of the inclosures, there must have been anciently a manufactory of flint tools and weapons. Countless spalls of flint and a fine collection of fabricated weapons and tools have been found there, and the collection has been presented from this place to the Plymouth Municipal Museum.
On Gidleigh Common, beside the Teign, opposite Batworthy, is Scaur Hill circle. It consists of thirty-two stones, at present, of which eight are prostrate. The highest of the stones is a little over six feet. The circle is ninety-two feet in diameter. Apparently leading towards this ring, on the Chagford side of the river, was a very long double row of stones, with a second double row or avenue branching from it.
There was a third double row, which started from the Longstone, near Caistor Rock. This Longstone
is still standing, but the stone rows have been
Plan of Stone Rows Near Caster Rock-A Book of Dartmoor.jpg
Plan of Stone Rows Near Caster Rock
(Taken in 1851, Scale 1/12 in. to 10 feet.)
A. The Longstone. Hence in a northerly direction the row continued for 520 feet.
B. Cairn. C. Cairn with ring of stones.
shamefully robbed by a farmer to build his newtake walls. I give plan of the rows as taken by me in 1851. There was another line of stones leading from the Three Boys to the Longstone. The Three Boys were three big stones that have disappeared, and the line from them has also been obliterated. This portion I unfortunately did not plan in 1851.
In the valley of the Teign is the so-called tolmen, a natural formation. In the same slab or stone may be seen the beginnings of a second hole. But it is curious as showing that the river at one time rolled at a higher elevation than at present. The scenes on a ramble up the river from Chagford to Holy Street Mill and the mill itself are familiar to many, as having furnished subjects for pictures in the Royal Academy.
The river Teign below Whiddon Park winds in and out among wooded precipitous hills to where the Exeter road descends in zigzags to Fingle Bridge, passing on its way Cranbrook Castle, a stone camp. The brook in the name is a corruption of burgh or burrh. On the opposite side of the valley, frowning across at Cranbrook, is Prestonbury Camp.
With advantage the river may be followed down for several miles to Dunsford Bridge, and the opportunity is then obtained of gathering white heath which grows on the slopes. At Shilstone in Drewsteignton is the only cromlech in the county. It is a fine monument. A few years ago it fell, but has been re-erected in its old position. After recent ploughing flints may be picked up in the field where it stands.
Gidleigh merits a visit, the road to it presenting many delicious peeps. Gidleigh possesses the ruin of a doll castle that once belonged to the Prouze family. The church contains a screen in good preservation. In the parish of Throwleigh is the interesting manor house Wanson, of which I have told a story in my Old English Home.
But perhaps more interesting than manor houses are the old farm buildings in the neighbourhood of Chagford, rapidly disappearing or being altered out of recognition to adapt them to serve as lodging-houses to receive visitors.
One such adaptation may be noticed in Tincombe Lane. An old house is passed, where the ancient mullioned windows have been heightened and the floors and ceilings raised, to the lasting injury of the house itself, considered from a picturesque point of view. A passable road leads up the South Teign to Fernworthy, a substantial farm in a singularly lone spot. But there was another farm even more lonely at Assacombe, where a lateral stream descends to the Teign, but it has been abandoned, and consists now of ruin only. Near it is a well-preserved double stone row leading from a cairn and finishing at a blocking-stone.
At Fernworthy itself is a circle of upright stones and the remains of several stone rows sorely mutilated for the construction of a newtake wall. In a tumulus near these monuments was found an urn containing ashes, with a flint knife, and another, very small, of bronze or copper, and a large polished button of horn. On Chagford Common, near Watern Hill, is a double pair of rows leading from a cairn and a small menhir, to blocking - stones. Although the stones of which they are composed are small, the rows are remarkably well preserved.
It will repay the visitor to continue his ascent of the South Teign to the Grey Wethers, two circles of stone, of which, however, many are fallen. Here exploration, such as has been conducted at Fernworthy circle, shows that the floors are deep in ashes, and this leads to the surmise that the circles were the crematories of the dead who lie in the cairns and tunnels in the neighbourhood.
Near the source of the North Teign is Teignhead House, one of the most solitary spots in England. A shepherd resides there, but it is not for many winters that a woman can endure the isolation and retain her reason.
And yet there remain the ruins of a house in a still more lonely situation. The moorman points it out as Browne's House.
Although, judging from the dilapidation and the lichened condition of the stones, one could have supposed that this edifice was of great antiquity, yet it is not so by any means. There are those still alive who remember when the chimney fell; and who had heard of both the building, the occupying, and the destruction of Browne's House. Few indeed have seen the ruin, for it is in so remote a spot that only the shepherd, the rush-cutter, and the occasional fisherman approach it.
On the Ordnance Survey, faint indications of inclosures are given on the spot, but no name is
attached. Yet every moorman, if asked what these
Grimspound, and Entrance-A Book of Dartmoor.jpg
Grimspound, and Entrance
ruins are, will tell you that it is the wreck of Browne's House.
The story told me relative to this solitary spot was that Browne, an ungainly, morose man, had a pretty young wife, of whom he was jealous. He built this place in which to live with her away from the society of men, and the danger such proximity might bring to his connubial happiness.
Grimspound will be visited from Chagford. The way to it after leaving the high-road from Post Bridge to Moreton, which it crosses, traverses Shapleigh Common, where are numerous inclosures in connection with hut circles. One of these is very large, and constructed of huge slabs of granite. Several of these larger circles were occupied only in summer, it would appear, as there are scanty traces of fire in them, whereas attached to them are small huts, the floors of which are thickly strewn with charcoal and fragments of pottery, and presumably the cooking was done in these latter.
Grimspound is an irregular circular inclosure containing four acres within the boundary wall. It is situated on the slope of a hill, and the position is obviously ill-adapted for defence, as it is commanded by higher ground on three sides. A little stream, the Grimslake, flows through the inclosure.
The wall itself is double-faced, and the two faces have fallen inwards. This shows that the core could not have been of turf, as in that case shrubs would have rooted themselves therein and have thrust the walls outward. In several places openings appear from the inside of the pound into the space between the walls. It is possible that this intermediate hollow was used for stores, and that the walls were tied together with timber, and surmounted with a parapet of turf. A trackway from Manaton to Headland Warren runs through the pound, and the wall has been broken through for this purpose in two places; but the original entrance to the S.S.E. is perfect, and is paved, and in it three steps have been formed, as the descent was into the pound, another token that the inclosure was not intended as a fortress.
The entrance is 8 feet wide, and no outwork was constructed to protect it from being "rushed" by an enemy. The walls of the inclosure here and throughout are from 10 feet to 12 feet thick, and stone does not exist in any part which could raise them above 5 feet 6 inches in height. Each wall is 3 feet 6 inches wide at base, and was 3 feet at top. On the west side is a huge slab set on edge, measuring 10 feet by 5 feet, and it is from 9 inches to 1 foot in thickness, and weighs from 3 to 4 tons. Other stones, laid in courses, if not so long, are not of less weight. Such a wall as that inclosing Grimspound would cost, with modern appliances and with horse power for drawing the stone, three guineas per land yard, and a land yard would engage four men for a week.
When, moreover, we consider that the circumference of the wall measures over 1,500 feet, it becomes obvious that a large body of men must have been engaged in the erection.
Presumably Grimspound was not a fortified village,
Grimspound-A Book of Dartmoor.jpg
Grimspound
and was merely a pound into which cattle were driven for protection against wolves. It is just
possible, but hardly probable, that it was the place of refuge for the scattered population on Hookner and Hamildon.
Within the pound are twenty-four hut circles; most have been explored, and one (No. III. on the plan) has been partially restored, and is inclosed within a railing. The object of this restoration was to discover, by piling up the stones found in and about the wall of the hut, what its height had been originally, and this was determined to have been four feet.
Unless wantonly injured by trippers, it will serve to exhibit what the structure of these habitations was, with its paved platform as bed, and its hearth and vestibule.
A double hut (XVIII., XIX.) is interesting because a tall stone was erected beside it, as though to indicate it as being the residence of some man of importance, maybe the sheik of the community. In hut XVI. is a double bed, one couch divided from the other by upright stones.
In several of the huts, in the floor, are laid flat stones with a smooth surface, and it was supposed that these served as chopping-stones, but further explorations have led to the belief that they were employed to sustain a central pole that upheld the roof.
On the col above Grimspound, near the source of Grimslake, is a cairn that contains a small kistvaen, and is surrounded by a circle of stones set upright.
Plan of Hut III., Grimspound-A Book of Dartmoor.jpg
Plan of Hut III., Grimspound
Numerous cairns crown the heights. One immense tumulus, King's Barrow, has at some unknown time
been excavated with great labour.
The great central trackway crosses Hamildon, and is very perfect where it does so. It had apparently no connection whatever with Grimspound.
From Grimspound may be seen, on the brow of the ridge connecting Birch Tor and Challacombe Down, a series of stone rows. They lead to a blocking-stone, or menhir, at the south extremity. The northern end has been destroyed by tin- streamers, whose works in Chaw Gully are interesting, for mining has been combined with streaming. The rock has been cut through, but no signs of the use of iron wedges for splitting the granite can here be discovered. It is traditionally told that what was done was to cut a groove in the granite, fill that with quicklime, and pour water on it. The lime in swelling split the rock. Ravens nest here; and I have seen rock doves and the pair of ravens nesting almost side by side.
Below is the Webburn, the stream turned up by tinners. There one mine continues in activity—the "Golden Dagger." Above is Vitifer, where fortunes have been made—and lost; mostly the latter by investors, mainly the former by the "captains" and promoters.
Near Manaton-A Book of Dartmoor.jpg

Near Manaton

'The vyndefeld men of dene had Ougborowe

Dart moor bukfastleigb
lion of trees; roads, reddish-brown between red lines for principal routes; single red and reddish-brown for less-important roads; moorland tracks white between black lines; churches drawn in elevation and in different sizes; Buckland Abbey and Tavistock named; boundary marks of Dartmoor named in scrolls and marked by a series of roundels; where boundary is indicated by individual stones a cairn is drawn except for Siward’s Cross which is shown by a cross; where names are too close to be written legibly they are marked by letter keyed to a list enclosed in rectangular cartouche, 23.4cms x 17.1cms Decoration: cartouche: simple acanthus with pendant acorn below Note:: modern copy [needing repair] at Duchy of Cornwall DCO 589 Publication: j,V. Somers Cocks, ‘Dartmoor Devonshire’ in Local Maps & Plans from Medieval England, R.A. Skelton & P.D.A. Harvey eds, (OUP, 1986), 293-302
4/3/2
DARTMOOR/BUCKFASTLEIGH
temp. Henry VIII    PRO    S.C.    12/2/39
Title: informacions for my lorde prynce to the kynges most Honorable Counsell concernyng my said Lrde prynces Forest of Dartmoor in the Countye of Devonshire &c in the mores & wastes to the same belongyn’
Surveyor: not named Sc ale: not given
Material, Size & Orientation: parchment, ?ink; 2 sheets, 61cms x 80cms and 51,3cms x 65cms; no direction Content: four concentric circles:-
Inner circle, diameter 16.9cms. ‘This lytell compas betokenyth the Foreste. The seconde compas betokenythe the waste ehich lyeth from the Forest unto the ... hit ys callyd the Commyners of I levonshire. The thirde compas Betokenithe the vyndefylde men there whichc be the kynges and myelorde princes is tenants. The fourthe compas betokenyth the hole shere of Devonshire. The lytell ?forykes aboute thecorndyches ys callyd the Lypeyattes for to goo unto the wast more and Forest’
Second circle, diameter 23.8ems, segmented:- ‘Este lypc yatte North ockentin yatte Weste pykeyeatte Southe sceryton yeatte’
third circle, diameter 29.8cms. 'The vyndefeld men of dene had Ougborowe The vyndelelde men ofcornewode had Harfford The vyndeflde men of schystor had meavye The vyndefelde men of Shaye|Shaugh| and Whittechurche, The vyndelfelde men of
Devon Maps
Walkynton and Samford The vynefelde men of Okenton and Southawt: The vynfelde men of Gydley and Throwely The vynde-felde men of Chageford and Manaton’
Fourth circle, diameter 36.8cms [no inscription]
Note: written information on the wintering of cattle on the K ing’s tennants holdings
Endorsed: lands of the Abbot of Buckfast expressed as a diagrammatic plan. Closes are shown as rectangles and include ‘a close callyd knowthome that the fyer bekon standith on’ with a drawing of the beacon; a road described as ‘This waye lyethe from Dartbrogge towardes the Forest of Dartmore’; ‘Parish church of Buckfastlee’ shown as a representation of a tower with a letter P superimposed; representation of a castle; details of rents payable Publication: E.J. Beer, Buckfastleigh Remembered (Privately published, 1981), map of Buckfastleigh only
4/3/3

DARTMOORDart moor bukfastleigb
lion of trees; roads, reddish-brown between red lines for principal routes; single red and reddish-brown for less-important roads; moorland tracks white between black lines; churches drawn in elevation and in different sizes; Buckland Abbey and Tavistock named; boundary marks of Dartmoor named in scrolls and marked by a series of roundels; where boundary is indicated by individual stones a cairn is drawn except for Siward’s Cross which is shown by a cross; where names are too close to be written legibly they are marked by letter keyed to a list enclosed in rectangular cartouche, 23.4cms x 17.1cms Decoration: cartouche: simple acanthus with pendant acorn below Note:: modern copy [needing repair] at Duchy of Cornwall DCO 589 Publication: j,V. Somers Cocks, ‘Dartmoor Devonshire’ in Local Maps & Plans from Medieval England, R.A. Skelton & P.D.A. Harvey eds, (OUP, 1986), 293-302
4/3/2
DARTMOOR/BUCKFASTLEIGH
temp. Henry VIII    PRO    S.C.    12/2/39
Title: informacions for my lorde prynce to the kynges most Honorable Counsell concernyng my said Lrde prynces Forest of Dartmoor in the Countye of Devonshire &c in the mores & wastes to the same belongyn’
Surveyor: not named Sc ale: not given
Material, Size & Orientation: parchment, ?ink; 2 sheets, 61cms x 80cms and 51,3cms x 65cms; no direction Content: four concentric circles:-
Inner circle, diameter 16.9cms. ‘This lytell compas betokenyth the Foreste. The seconde compas betokenythe the waste ehich lyeth from the Forest unto the ... hit ys callyd the Commyners of I levonshire. The thirde compas Betokenithe the vyndefylde men there whichc be the kynges and myelorde princes is tenants. The fourthe compas betokenyth the hole shere of Devonshire. The lytell ?forykes aboute thecorndyches ys callyd the Lypeyattes for to goo unto the wast more and Forest’
Second circle, diameter 23.8ems, segmented:- ‘Este lypc yatte North ockentin yatte Weste pykeyeatte Southe sceryton yeatte’
third circle, diameter 29.8cms. 'The vyndefeld men of dene had Ougborowe The vyndelelde men ofcornewode had Harfford The vyndeflde men of schystor had meavye The vyndefelde men of Shaye|Shaugh| and Whittechurche, The vyndelfelde men of
Devon Maps
Walkynton and Samford The vynefelde men of Okenton and Southawt: The vynfelde men of Gydley and Throwely The vynde-felde men of Chageford and Manaton’
Fourth circle, diameter 36.8cms [no inscription]
Note: written information on the wintering of cattle on the K ing’s tennants holdings
Endorsed: lands of the Abbot of Buckfast expressed as a diagrammatic plan. Closes are shown as rectangles and include ‘a close callyd knowthome that the fyer bekon standith on’ with a drawing of the beacon; a road described as ‘This waye lyethe from Dartbrogge towardes the Forest of Dartmore’; ‘Parish church of Buckfastlee’ shown as a representation of a tower with a letter P superimposed; representation of a castle; details of rents payable Publication: E.J. Beer, Buckfastleigh Remembered (Privately published, 1981), map of Buckfastleigh only
4/3/3
DARTMOOR

Friday, 4 May 2018

Skeletons uncovered at Ipplepen reveals major Roman cemetery

Skeletons uncovered at Ipplepen reveals major Roman cemetery

15 ancient skeletons have been discovered on an archaeological dig in Ipplepen, a major Romano-British settlement in Devon and now the best preserved Roman cemetery. University of Exeter archaeologists and a team of students and volunteers uncovered the human remains during an excavation of a Roman Road and found a roadside cemetery, the like of which has never been seen in the region.
The significance of the discovery took on further importance when one of the skeletons was found to date from around 250 to 350 years after the Roman period, an era often referred to as the ‘dark ages’. These discoveries are of both national and regional value in providing a glimpse into Romano-British life and how the settlement continued into post-Roman times.
The project team are still in the early stages of analysis, and it is hoped that research will be able to provide valuable information about the life of individuals including age, diet, and disease. The team are also hoping isotope analysis will indicate the geographic origin of individuals. Stable isotopes in water are taken into tooth enamel when a person is young. As the isotope signatures in water vary geographically, it is possible to indicate where a person grew up. The team hope to be able to see if individuals are from Devon or from further reaches of the Roman Empire. Additional radiocarbon dating is also needed to help determine when the roadside cemetery first came into use.
Danielle Wootton, the Devon Finds Liaison Officer for the Portable Antiquities Scheme, based at the University of Exeter’s Archaeology Department said:“The geophysics results indicated the features were interesting, but we didn’t know what the level of preservation or the extent would be until we started excavating last summer.  As the excavation progressed, it became clear that we were dealing with the largest Romano-British cemetery discovered in Devon and that it had huge potential to develop our understanding of settlements and how people lived in the southwest 2,000 years ago. Then the radiocarbon date of AD 655 – 765 brought even further revelations; everyone was very surprised. It suggests continuation of the settlement after the Roman period and shows that life carried on at Ipplepen rather than falling out of use.”
Sam Moorhead, National Finds Adviser for Iron Age and Roman coins at the British Museum said:“We always thought that Ipplepen was special, but the excavations continue to throw up new surprises.”
Danielle Wootton added: “The site was originally discovered by Jim Wills and Dennis Hewings, who reported their metal-detected finds with the Portable Antiquities Scheme. Since then, the excavation has gone from strength to strength; it’s been great to have the support of the community; hundreds of people visited our open day last year and villagers have been fantastic.”  
This summer the Ipplepen site will be excavated on 6- 31 July, providing another opportunity for archaeologists and volunteers to further explore the location where the cemetery and Roman Road were found. This year additional archaeological knowledge and expertise will be brought to the dig by University of Exeter archaeologists Dr John Davey and Professor Stephen Rippon. The project is able to offer 20 free volunteer places (five each week) to Devon residents. Excavation volunteers must be able to commit to a week and enjoy working outdoors in all weathers. There will be a site open day for visitors with guided excavation tours and opportunities to see some of the finds. Further information for the Ipplepen Field School is on the University of Exeter, Archaeology website and the date of the Open Day will be announced in the local press at the end of June.
County Archaeologist Bill Horner commented:“This is one of the most important discoveries in Devon in recent years. The concentration and range of finds and archaeological features is really exciting. It is also a very good example of how a real partnership can get so much more than just objects and reports out of archaeology. It has been great playing a part in the discovery of such a site, to work alongside the University staff and students, and British Museum experts, but it has been a real delight to see the local community embrace the project and get so hands-on in exploring their own and the county’s heritage.”
BBC 4’s Digging for Britain new series will feature the huge Roman settlement in Ipplepen and show the results of this exciting find as part of the series 3 West of England programme on Tuesday 10 February at 8pm. Archaeologists from the University of Exeter feature in the popular programme which focuses on Britain’s best excavations of 2014.

The project is supported by the University of Exeter, the Portable Antiquities Scheme, the British Museum and Devon County Council. The radiocarbon testing was generously funded by Teignbridge District Council.

Roman cemetery

A "major" Roman cemetery has been discovered during an archaeological dig in Devon.
Experts found 15 skeletons during the excavation of a Roman road at Ipplepen, near Exeter.
Tests on one of the skeletons showed the settlement was in use up to 350 years after the Roman period ended, which has surprised experts.
Archaeologists said the discoveries were both nationally and regionally important.


Danielle Wootton, from the Portable Antiquities Scheme, said: "As the excavation progressed, it became clear that we were dealing with one of the most significant Romano-British cemeteries discovered in Devon and that it had huge potential to develop our understanding of settlements and how people lived in the South West 2,000 years ago."
The Romans invaded Britain in 43 AD and their reign ended in about 410 AD.
Ms Wootton said the discovery of a body from up to 350 years after they left "suggests continuation of the settlement after the Roman period and shows that life carried on at Ipplepen rather than falling out of use."
The team, from the University of Exeter, hopes further research will more about the ages of those who died, along with the diets and diseases they had.
Bill Horner, county archaeologist, said: "This is one of the most important discoveries in Devon in recent years.
"The concentration and range of finds and archaeological features is really exciting."
The Ipplepen project is supported by the University of Exeter, the Portable Antiquities Scheme, the British Museum and Devon County Council.

Saturday, 28 April 2018

Bottle Hill Mine is situated just over two miles northeast of Plympton.



Bottle Hill Mine is situated just over two miles northeast of Plympton.
 Otherwise known as Old Bottle Hill Mine,

 due to the fact that it dates from the early 1700's,
 the mine worked four E-W tin and copper lodes, known as North Lode (Blanchard's), Main Lode, Buckinghouse (Caunter) Lode and South Lode. It also worked a N-S lead bearing crosscourse.
Production records report that early production was tin and that between 1823 and 1835 - 1800 tons of 4.75% copper ore was raised. Between 1837-39 and 1852-85 - 640 tons of black tin was produced. In the period 1856 to 1875 - 200 tons copper ore was raised. In addition the mine produced 30 tons arsenopyrite and 13 tons of arsenic.

southwestern slope of Hemerdon Bal



Hemerdon Mine (approx. 0.2 km; TUNGSTEN & TIN)
Bottle Hill (approx. 0.8 km; COPPER, TIN & ARSENIC)
Wheal Mary Hutchings (approx. 0.9 km; TIN & ARSENIC)
Lobb Mine (approx. 0.9 km; TIN & ARSENIC)
Sidney Mine (approx. 2.4 km; TIN & ARSENIC)
Borringdon Consols (approx. 4.5 km; LEAD, SILVER, ZINC, ARSENOPYRITE & COPPER)
Cann Mine (approx. 4.9 km)
Shaugh Mine (approx. 6.0 km; IRON)
Ivybridge Consols (approx. 8.1 km; SILVER-LEAD)
Kit (approx. 9.0 km; TIN)

Including Mary Hutchings, the mines lie on the southwestern slope of Hemerdon Bal, about two miles northeast of Plympton. Mary Hutchings sett lay to the west working a single lode from Engine Shaft. Hemerdon Consols worked three lodes.

Production records report that for Mary Hutchings between 1866 and 1880 - 426 tons of black tin. Between 1873 and 1879 - 263 tons of arsenic. 188 tons of mispickel were raised between 1874-76. For Hemerdon Consols in 1855-56 23 tons of black tin were raised.