The importance of
tin was that it ushered in the Bronze Age: it was added to copper to make
bronze. About 12% tin with copper produced
a much
harder metal, for tools, weapons, armour etc.
Before this, there was arsenic-bronze, but
tin-bronze was more easily made.
Bronze
Age:
The Aegean Bronze
Age began
around 3200 BC, when civilizations first established a far-ranging trade
network. This network imported tin and charcoal to Cyprus, where copper was
mined and alloyed with the tin to produce bronze.
It started on
Dartmoor
around 2,150 BC - some 4,000 years ago.
(DNPA Factsheet).
Early
tin deposits were probably found in streams where eroded cassiterite,
tin dioxide (�black tin�) was deposited, particularly on bends in the
water course;.
Extraction might have been by a forming of
separation from unwanted tin gravels
and debris by a form of gold-panning, i.e. separation by weight by swilling
around on a flat object.
The earliest documentary evidence for tin extraction on Dartmoor is in the Pipe Roll of 1156 (pp.46-48?), also Atti del IX Congresso Internazionale sulla Ceramica Medievale nel Mediterraneose (p.65). Alluvial tin was worked at this time at Sheepstor and Brisworthy. This was early Medieval tin-streaming. In Tudor and Elizabethan times, open cutting and adit mining came into use as well. In the 18th C and 19th C shaft mining was developed (Gill, p.100).
REDRAWN from Worth�s �Dartmoor� Fig. 87:
Growth and decay of
Dartmoor tin production, pp.286-288.
White tin = smelted; black tin = output from tin mills i.e. un-smelted.
Good Stannary records for the Crown and The Duchy of Cornwall�s taxation
purposes!
1200s
� incomplete records, but 1290-1299 inclusive, average annual production was
75,244 lbs = 33.6 tons.
1100s
� much greater output, estimated that between 1171-1189, average annual output
was 343 tons.
1400-1450
2,704 tons total in 50 years
1450-1500
5,196
1500-1550
9,944
1550-1600
4,655
1600-1650
1,250
Total recorded above: 26,829 TONS of white tin.
It is likely that some tin was not recorded, meaning tax was not paid on it.
From https://www.historic-cornwall.org.uk/flyingpast/streams.html
Cornwall: The boom years for tin streamers were the 1330�s when more than a million pounds (2,200 tonnes) of tin was produced annually. Although tin streaming declined in importance after the seventeenth century it continued as an industry up to the mid 1900s.
Streams of
tin ���
Deposits of
alluvial tin occur where tin-rich
rocks have been broken away by erosion from their parent seam or �lode�, and
have accumulated in the bottom of river valleys. These accumulations are known
as tin
streams.
After the formation of a tin stream, layers of sand and
gravel settled on top of it. Over time they in turn were covered by
accumulations of peat and leaf mould. These layers of
overburden are frequently several
metres deep. To reach the tin stream the tinners first had to remove the
overburden. This was done by hand and dumps of unwanted overburden were produced
alongside or downstream of the working areas.
The technique used to extract tin from these
streams is known as tin streaming.
Streamworkers took advantage of the fact that cassiterite (tin ore) is denser
than the associated minerals which constitute granite. By diverting a stream of
water over and through the tin stream, the lighter sands and silts could be
washed away in suspension leaving behind the heavier gravels containing tin-rich
rocks.
Where large amounts of coarse overburden covered the tin stream the heavy wastes were systematically removed by wheelbarrow. This method of dumping waste produced a characteristic pattern of overlapping rectangular mounds or ramps. In cross section each mound is shaped like a wedge of cheese, with a shallow gradient leading to a steep scarp. The length of each ramp reflects a reasonable distance over which the waste could be barrowed. Once this distance was reached a new ramp was started; hence the overlapping �wedges�. The ground was exploited in strips in this way and the workings have scoured the landscape to a considerable depth.
Streams had to be temporarily diverted from the working
areas to allow access to the tin gravels. As the whole width of a tin stream was
worked numerous diversion channels were dug, sending the stream first one way,
then another. As a result many streamworks have left deep cuttings gouged into
the surrounding landscape.
Parallel workings
In situations where the overburden was shallow or
comprised fine material, most of it could be simply washed away saving much
heavy labour.
In this type of streamworks water was brought through a
channel into the working area and the overburden was washed into the river or a
drain where it flowed downstream in suspension. The heavy stones and gravel left
behind were piled up to form steep linear banks just downstream from the working
area. By dumping waste on the area just worked, the streamers maintained a
consistent width to their current working area. This would have been essential
for maintaining a steady flow of water at the optimum velocity for the
operation. Working upstream in a systematic way the streamers produced a regular
pattern of parallel banks of spoil.
From
a tin
streamer�s point of view the advantages of eluvial tin streams were that
there was normally much less overburden to be dug away, there was no need to dig
channels to divert the river (in some cases a major undertaking), and there was
no problem with drainage in contrast to some low-lying alluvial workings.
The great disadvantage was that water for washing away
the waste material had to be brought to the site from available streams, often
over long distances. This was done through a system of hand dug channels known
as leats. Water brought via the
leats was stored in purpose-made
reservoirs until needed.
For these reasons it is likely that eluvial streams were
worked in winter when high rainfall meant water was plentiful. Conversely
alluvial streamworks were probably worked in summer when river levels were
lowest, making it easier to control the flow of diverted water and facilitating
drainage.
FROM DNPA
FACTSHEET �..
Dartmoor tin-working is documented from
1156 to its demise in
1930 when Golden Dagger, last
working tin mine on Dartmoor closed.
1195
� Stannary
Courthouse and gaol built at Lydford.
1201
� Stannary Charter issued by King John.
1272
� Trowlesworthy rabbit warren set up.
1328
� Plympton becomes a Stannary Town.
The results of tin
streaming
can be seen in many valley bottoms on Dartmoor, especially the River Plym and
the River Erme.
In the 1,400s,
if not earlier, tinners began digging long open cast pits along tin lodes
occurring near the surface., resulting in gullies some 200 x 20 x10 metres deep
(�gerts�). On Dartmoor, the lodes
align roughly E-W.
These were often called
beamworks and the word Beam is often
incorporated into their names.
Most beamworks
date to before 1650.
Vertical shafts
and associated horizontal adits
(for drainage) probably started to appear in the 1,400s, but the more easily
recognised ones will before the 1,700 and 1,800s.
The mills
Crushing only �
knocking mills, after
c. 1750, known as
stamping mills � after that time,
most tin was taken off the moor for smelting. Typified by
mortar-stones. A rarity is the use
of two flat stones for grinding ore, used like mill stones for grinding flour �
these are crazing mills (one at
Hexworthy / Gobbet mine).
Smelting only �
blowing mills � waterwheel drove a
bellows to blow a blast furnace.
Mould-stones often found.
Norsworthy mill
� no evidence of smelting � water wheel drove twin stamps.
All mills had associated settling pits outside,
buddles., for collecting the crushed
tin as lighter material was separated off by running water.
The
last tin smelting on Dartmoor was at Eylesbarrow, 1822-1831, then sent to
Cornwall e.g. Truro.
In the late 1700s and 1800s. tin mines became more
complex with machinery, waterwheels, cranks, flat rods etc.
for
driving remote gear such as pumps.
The last working
mine on Dartmoor was Golden Dagger,
underground work finished by WW1, but surface work continued to re-process
earlier waste until 1930s.
Deep Swincombe Blowing House - thought to be the oldest on Dartmoor. The mould-stone is of cut elvan and different to any others, it has an early form of furnace. Later workers had a crazing mill there and stamps for re-smelting old slags that still had tin in them. "Until recentlythe Malays threw away their slags, which contained as much as 40% tin". S. Baring-Gould (1900). A Book of Dartmoor, 3rd facsimile 2002, Halsgrove, Tiverton, Devon, pages 113-117
Sources
https://ougs.org/southwest/event-reports/tin-extraction-on-dartmoor-145/
Streaming works are evident in nearly every Dartmoor valley and so prolific had
this industry been during the 1500s that in 1598 Francis Drake, who was then
Mayor of Plymouth, petitioned The Crown in London to levy further dues and
impose tighter restrictions on the Tinners because the amount of silt being
carried off the moor in the rivers threatened to choke the natural harbour of
Plymouth Sound, home of the English Navy
and vital for protection of the country from the traditional enemies of France
and particularly at the time Spain. However, the industry was already in decline
and by
the early 1600s many alluvial cassiterite deposits on Dartmoor had been worked
out.
In
the early 1600s two new mining technologies arrived in the UK. Black powder for
blasting
was first used in the south-west of England in the mines at Combe Martin around
1640 and could readily be used for creating open cast trenches. Controlled
blasting on the other hand greatly facilitated
the other new technology imported by
miners from Germany; the driving of under ground tunnels known as 'levels'
and 'adits' for the exploitation of the mineral veins deep underground by
excavation of cavities known as 'stopes'.
Even
so by the early 1700s tin mining on Dartmoor had dwindled and effectively
ceased;
the new technologies were limited in their application because the abundant and
ever present water (Dartmoor has more days of rain annually than anywhere else
in the UK) caused persistent flooding and only a certain amount of draining of
the underground works could be accomplished by running the water off through a
drainage adit driven from low down on the side of a valley.
https://classprojects.kenyon.edu/engl/exeter/Kenyon%20Web%20Site/Anna/mining%20insight%20pg.html
Dartmoor Productivity
In medieval times tin was still in great demand
throughout England for its crucial role in making pewter, the alloy of tin and
lead, which had become a highly desirable material for domestic house wares,
such as cups, bowls, and utensils, (Newman, 6).
Tinning on
Dartmoor reached its peak yield around between 1520 and 1530: in 1524 564,288
pounds of tin were extracted! (Worth
287-288).
There was a sharp decline in the tin mining for the next 70 odd years, and
during the 1640s, a time of Civil War in England, tinning stopped almost
entirely. Thereafter, only smaller amounts of tin were dug in Dartmoor
except for one year, 1706, in which 123,636 pounds were brought up, (Worth
287-288). There was a slight increase during the Napoleonic Wars period,
coupled with the approaching industrial aged, due to innovations of plating iron
with tin, but tinning on Dartmoor continued to dwindle. In the 19th century
tin was required with the development of canning foods, but Dartmoor was by this
time no longer a center for its production: smelting on the moor was finished by
the beginning of the 19thcentury, and in 1838 an Act was passed which
abolished the need to pay dues on coinage, (Harris, 44). No tin has been
mined in Devon since 1930, due to the cheaper cost of imports from other global
mines in places such as Malaysia (Ibid).
$38 for the PDF
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Another view of the tin workings including Pila Brook. It
was presumably this water source that was diverted and used for washing away the
lighter sediments etc. so as to leave the heavier tin-bearing gravels and sands
for smelting. This would have been among the earliest tin-extraction
methods. This photograph also shows the scarp surrounding this area that
suggests how much the early tinners changed the look of the landscape.
Richard Strode, MP for Plympton, inrpisoned by the stannators in Lydford Castle in 1512, for attempting to get Parliament to prevent the tinners from harming the harbours by their mining operations i.e. silting up. (p.224).
In 1466, King Edward IV granted the tinners of Cornwall rights of turbary (right to cut peat) and pasturage in Dartmoor Forest, after they ran out of timber in Cornwall for smelting and "coinage had fallen off three hundred marks and more" i.e. the tax "take" was down! (pp. 300-301).
The earliest printed statutes of the Stannary Parliaments are from the reign of Henry VIII, passed at the Crockern Tor Parliament of Tinners, printed in Tavistock within the precincts of the abbey in 1510. It was basically for the governance of tin works and blowing houses (pages 307-309).
Carbonarii - persons licensed to dig turf (peat) on Dartmoor for the making of charcoal, for smelting tin? 33 in around 1350 to about 110 in around 1440. HSA Fox (1994), Medieval Dartmoor as seen through its account rolls. In: The Archaeology of Dartmoor: Perspectives from the 1990s, Devon Archaeological Society Proceedings No. 52, pp.149-172.
. .
Crazing mills - only three known on dartmoor: Gobbett, Outcombe and Yellowmead.
1750 - this is the date that it is considered that shaft mining started on Dartmoor. This is where shafts were sunk to ecploit deeper lodes where openworking and lodeback pits could not reach it. Adits were dug for drainage and for access. (p.184).
After 1750, most Dartmoor tin came from a relatively small number of mines, rather than the streamworks which seem to have become economically exhausted by this time (p.194)
Crushing and stamping was done close to the mine. After 1831, when Eyelborough closed (its furnace), all smelting was done off the moor (p.194).
Dr Sandy Gerard (1994), The Dartmoor industry: an Archaeological perspective. In: The Archaeology of Dartmoor: Perspectives from the 1990s, Devon Archaeological Society Proceedings No. 52, pp173-198.
Beamworks are invariably pre-1700 TAP Greeves & P Newman (1994), Tin working and land use in the Walkha, valley: a preliminary analysis. In: The Archaeology of Dartmoor: Perspectives from the 1990s, Devon Archaeological Society Proceedings No. 52, pp.199-219 (pp173-198) p.204
Over Tor Brook / Over Tor Gert, reservoir above the track to Great Mis Tor. Likely to date to before 1.700. In Fig. 1 - Wheal Fortune (Merrivale Bridge Mine) across Walkham opposite the Over Tor Brookp.205-207.
. .