Category: Articles

  • Tin Straws

    Tin Straws

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    Hilary Whitelock
    in ,

    by Hilary Whitelock A bundle of tin straws was one of the items which fascinated me at the St Just Mining and Minerals Museum, during the excellent DTRG visit to the Botallack area in May. These rather contorted sticks of tin are ca 50 – 55cm long, roughly D-shaped in cross-section and ca 9mm diameter.…

  • Walkham Valley Mines

    Walkham Valley Mines

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    Stephen Holley
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    Geology The lodes worked occur in an area of clay-slates of Devonian age. Southwards towards Yelverton, these slates show signs of Metamorphism. Some 600-700 ft north of the workings is a large elvan dyke, which extends westwards to the Hingston Down-Gunnislake granite mass. General Information This article concerns four mines two of which were predominantly…

  • The Condition Of Mines In Great Britain

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    Helen Wilson
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    Minutes Of Evidence Taken Before The Commission Appointed To Inquire Into The Condition Of Mines In Great Britain Ashburton Thursday 28th May 1863 Mr William Hosking Examined QUESTION: ANSWER: Of what mine have you charge? West Beam. How many men are employed there? About 160 are employed underground and on the surface. About how many…

  • Bal Mine

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    Anne Whitbourn
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    The Dartmoor Tinworking Research Group (DTRG) were asked to survey an area south-east of Norsworthy Bridge at the eastern end of Burrator Reservoir by Southwest Lakes Trust (SWLT). The area is close to the car-park and includes a wheelpit, launder embankment, leat, stream work and many other features. Surveying an area to the south-east, that…

  • Stormsdown Mine

    Stormsdown Mine

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    Stephen Holley
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    Stormsdown is at the head of Owlacombe a tributary valley of the the Langworthy Brook, which itself is a tributary of the River Lemon. The geology consists of shales, grits and chert otherwise known as killas by the miners. The mines are in the metamorphic aurole zone that surrounds the igneous mass and the lodes…

  • A Napoleonic Venture in the Newleycombe Valley

    A Napoleonic Venture in the Newleycombe Valley

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    Tom Greeves
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    The Newleycombe Valley, extending more or less west-east from Burrator Reservoir to the Devonport Leat tunnel below Nuns Cross, has some of the most extensive and ancient evidence of tinworking to be found on Dartmoor. At its upper end there is a confluence of two streams, one descending from the north-east from Older Bridge and…