At 00:41 04/04/2008, Robert Waterhouse wrote:
>I wonder, does anyone know when the deep adit (on lode) at South
>Tamar Consols silver-lead mine (West Devon) was driven? I visited
>it recently and was struck by its small dimensions and archaic
>'coffin level' shape. It would not surprise me if it was 17th
>century or even earlier, but perhaps the more silver-minded of you
>may know more?
The earliest evidence for the adit I've seen is on the plan of the
Old Bere Mines (Devon Record Office 4672A/HS/79E) which is a mid 19th
century copy of a plan originally dating to about 1809 during the
working by the Beeralstone Mining Company. It is depicted on that
plan as being about 125 metres but it was subsequently extended for
some distance, beyond Mundays Shaft in Cleave Wood. The 'southern
hill' of the mine, between Cleave Wood and the river (the site later
known as South Tamar Consols), was being investigated in the 1450s
but there is no specific reference to an adit driven from the river.
Cleave Wood is the most southerly area of the known medieval workings
where silver-bearing deposits are worked at or close to surface. The
nature of the bearing horizons and the presence of slides which
appear to disturb the mineralised crosscourse means that the workable
deposits hade deeper to the south and they were subsequently worked
deep under the river. In the 1840s South Tamar United, the
predecessor to South Tamar Consols, cleared out the adit but soon
abandoned that to concentrate on working under the river.
Peter
______________________________________________
Dr Peter Claughton,
Blaenpant Morfil, nr. Rosebush, Clynderwen, Pembrokeshire, Wales SA66 7RE.
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