In message <[log in to unmask]>, [log in to unmask] writes

<snip>
> Associated with these clays are beds of lignite(brown coal),the most 
>important 
> seam being the 'Big Coal',up to ten feet thick.The seams are believed to be 
>rafts
> of tree debris swept into the lake from which the Bovey Basin was formed.
>   The commonest species is Sequoia, the Redwood pine.Conjures up quite a
> picture,Dartmoor as Giant Redwood forest.
>     These coals were mined by shaft and adit and used as fuel in the Bovey
> potteries.
>   A similar basin,about 0.75x 4.5sq.miles in area occurs at Petrockstow in
> North Devon with thin beds of lignite which were probably worked in 
>association
> with the clays,this time by levels driven from inclined shafts.
> A reference is 'The Lignites and Clays of Bovey Tracey' by W. Pengelly
> in Phil. Trans. volclii
>   I don't know the last date of coal mining but does anyone know of a book
> on this and/or the clay mines of this district(do they still work?)
>          Andrew Santer

Now having time to respond to Andrew's info more fully ...

Some fifteen or so years ago I met a man who had worked at the lignite
mines at Bovey in the 1930s. I regret not quizzing him about this. I
recently met an engineer who used to visit the Bovey area and he
described to me what could only be a man-engine. 

I do not recall coming across any reference to lignite at Petrockstow so
its economic impact must have been slight. I did hear a reference to
rotting vegetation in "black" clay enhancing its firing properties and
perhaps this is the same thing.

The Petrockstow beds were worked initially by pits and by shaft from
about 1892 as it was easier to keep the workings dry. Shafts were at an
angle of up to 1 in 3 and up to 100 feet deep, although running for some
400 feet underground, with horizontal levels off. The pit heads were
wonderful ramshackle things covered in corrugated iron. Shaft mining
finished in 1969 and all clay is now extracted from large open pits.

About three miles south east are the Meeth workings which commenced in
1920. Underground mining was in force from 1927 until the mid-1970s
using quite shallow drifts and what they locally called "the footrail
method". This works became part of ECC in 1965 and is still flourishing,
I believe.

Apart from my book, "North Devon Clay", some photos and a description of
the mining methods in the Bovey beds appear in "Mines of Cornwall &
Devon" by Peter Stanier (Twelveheads, 1998, and still available). There
is also the company history of WBB, "The Potters Field" by Tom Rolt
(David & Charles, 1974).

Michael Messenger


----------------------------------------- 
Michael Messenger
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http://www.twelveheads.demon.co.uk/
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