DO CAR PARK PAGE EARLY - http://www.dartmoorcam.co.uk/CAM/CarParks/ShaughBridge.htm
DO RISK ASSESSMENT - give the date done here - 21st Dec. 2018
DO DPA BLOG ARTICLE - DON'T FORGET - give the link here -
REMEMBER TO REMOVE .....
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This walk: 2019-1-25. This walk encompasses four 19th Century industries - china clay, brick-making, iron mining and granite quarrying - Shaugh Bridge china clay drying sheds, River Plym, Shaugh Bridge, 2010 footbridge, River Meavy, river confluence, water wheel pit, Shaugh Brick Works, Brogden-Caspar Tunnel Kiln, exposed tree bole, grilled adit of the Ferro-Ceramic Mine (aka Dewerstone Iron Mine), river bank path, Dewerstone Cottage, inclined plane, brake drum house, granite setts, four granite quarries, possible sett makers banker, three crane bases, The Pixie (Pixie Rock), the Smithy, drill test stone.
Walk details below - Information about the route etc.
Previous walks in this area: 17 Nov. 2010, (6 Feb. 2013), 10 June 2015, 26 May 2016,
Reconnaissance walks: 19 Dec. 2018, 22 Dec. 2018, 30 Dec. 2018, 11 Jan. 2019,
Old maps .....Tithe maps show nothing in this area
(1)
Shaugh Prior
- Shaugh Bridge and Shaugh Mill at top left - look for rivers joining
together
(2)
Bickleigh - Shaugh Bridge 1/3rd way down right edge
- look for rivers joining together
Google Satellite map + GPS track of the walk
1. Save track as a GPX file on Memory Map
2. You can use Google Earth to convert a GPX file to KML
- import from GPS unit using Google Earth Tools > GPS > Import
- or drag GPX from Saved GPX Files or from Desktop
- OR FILE OPEN Saved GPX Files
Options - create KML Tracks + Adjust altitudes to ground heights - DO NOT CREATE
KML LINESTRINGS3.
3. Get the BLUE track on Google Earth - right-click and
Save Place As KML (NOT AS KMZ) to
Saved GPX files (Option to save to My Places)
Go to Google > Google My Maps .....
>
https://www.google.com/maps/d/?pli=1
1. Create a new map
2. Set Base Map > Satellite > Add a layer? - not necessary > Rename layer to map
title > Import - GIVES THE ACTIVE IMPORT WINDOW !!!
3. Import using File-Open OR drag file from Desktop
4. Add place marks as appropriate
5. Click on Share > change to Public - anyone can view but NOT edit
6. Copy the LINK TO SHARE > "Google Satellite map + GPS track of the walk" on
the web page.
Further reading
Don Balkwill (2008).
The Book of Shaugh Parish - It's a Shaugh Thing. Halsgrove,
Wellington, Somerset.
Eric Hemery (1983). Walking the Dartmoor Railroads,
David & Charles, Newton Abbot. Chap. 10 - GWR: Dewerstone Quarry
Branch, pages 98-101.
Old OS maps
-
http://maps.nls.uk/os/ e.g.
Ordnance Survey, Six-inch, 1st edition - 1843-1882
??????????
ORDNANCE SURVEY ABBREVIATIONS -
https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/resources/maps-and-geographic-resources/map-abbreviations.html#l
Old OS maps - Upper numbers: FIELD numbers in surveyor's notebook; lower
numbers acreages to three decimal places.
BGS
Coordinate converter - BNG >< Eastings & Northings
TITHE MAP
-
https://new.devon.gov.uk/historicenvironment/tithe-map/
Tithe Map numbers are PLOT numbers as used in the Tithe Apportionments
List of Tithe Map dates
PASTSCAPE -
https://www.pastscape.org.uk/
-
no copyright permission
HERITAGE GATEWAY -
http://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/gateway/
DARTMOOR WALKS RESOURCE -
HER (Historic Environment Records) and NMR (National Monument records)
DNPA PLANNING REGISTER -
http://www.dartmoor.gov.uk/planning/planning-application-search
- Enter a property and click "View Map"
HUNDREDS OF DEVON
-
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/DEV/Hundreds#index
SAMPLE:
Devon & Dartmoor HER - MDV103325 - Burrator Reservoir -
a good short history of the reservoir
Dartefacts - Username
- KeithRyan - Westbourne@123#
Doomsday
Book
HANDBRAKE VIDEO CONVERTER INSTRUCTIONS - https://handbrake.fr/docs/en/1.1.0/introduction/quick-start.html
Permissions
Old OS maps -
"Reproduced
with the permission of the National Library of Scotland"
HER.
- "Information from the Devon
& Dartmoor Historic Environment Record"-- USE
THIS
Dartmoor Trust - ""Photograph
used by kind permission of The Dartmoor Trust Archive" - (ref. Simon Butler.
email 13 Feb. 2017).
Devon County Council - unless
otherwise stated,
apart
from the Devon County Council Crest,
copyright protected material may be reproduced free of charge in any format or
media without requiring specific permission. This is subject to the material
being reproduced accurately and not being used in a derogatory manner or in a
misleading context. Where material is being published or issued to others, the
source and copyright status must be acknowledged:
(c) Devon County Council -
https://new.devon.gov.uk/copyright/
Google Earth -
"Image
from Google Earth (c) 2016."
Shaugh Bridge China Clay Drying Sheds, built in three phases from between 1870 and 1895 (there is a date stone inscribed 1895); closed down in 1952 (Sources: MDV2218 and MDV119752 below). China clay suspended in water flowed two miles as a slurry in a pipe from near Cadover Bridge. There are various channels and settling and thickening tanks out of sight on high ground up behind this structure. The sheds were cleared from overgrowth in 2009 by Dartmoor Preservation Association (I remember working here!) ..... the clay was dried by heat and cut into blocks, loaded onto carts amd carried to Bickleigh Station (not Shaugh Platform?). The photograph shows the bays where carts were backed in to be loaded. This is now Shaugh Bridge car park.
Devon & Dartmoor HER - MDV2218 - Shaugh Prior China Clay Works, Shaugh Prior
Devon & Dartmoor HER - MDV119755 - Furnaces at Shaugh Bridge China Clay Works, Shaugh Prior
The clay was dried by heat from fires in kilns which were so hot that the workers had to wear wooden clogs. There is a date stone, below the white marker in the centre of the photograph .....
The date stone, showing WBBC 1895. The letters signify Watts, Blake, Bearne & Company. Some web links: WBBC at Companies House, WBBC in Grace's Guide to British Industrial History, The Ball Clay Heritage Society, The Ball Clay Industry (Newton Abbot), WBB Minerals on Facebook. WBB Minerals is now wholly owned by the Belgian company, SCR Sibelco SA.
Photograph of the clay works from a newspaper dated 5 February 1939,
from Don Balkwill, The Book of Shaugh Parish, p.82.
The
open yard seen above is now today's car park, compare with the preceding
photograph above. Dewerstone Hill is behind.
This image is reproduced by kind permission of
Halsgrove,
Wellington, Somerset.
Drawing of the workings of the clay works made by Jeffery Jones and
redrawn by Chris Titchener, from Don Balkwill, The Book of Shaugh
Parish, p.83.
This image is reproduced by kind permission of
Halsgrove,
Wellington, Somerset.
Other china clay search results .....
The car park sign. Click the image to see a larger version.
China clay can still be seen on the ground between the car park and the path to the footbridge - which can be seen starting in this photograph .....
A close-up photograph of the clay shows no structure - it was a powder.
The 14 November 2010 footbridge that crosses the River Plym from the car park .....
The River Plym in spate, after some heavy rain ..... the car park is to the right and the ruins of Shaugh Brick Works and the Ferro Ceramic Mine are just off the left edge of the photograph ..... there is a photograph in The Book of Shaugh Parish (page 51) of a new footbridge being emplaced in 1989: the caption says it was over the Meavy but old maps only show this one over the Plym. The date on this one is still seen clearly, 2010, replacing an 1989 version. Other wooden footbridges were built in 1924 (over the Meavy, washed away in 1928) and a similar (rustic) bridge was built over the Plym at some time and also in the early 1950s, 1989 and 2010.
Looking down the River Plym to Shaugh Bridge from the footbridge ..... the River Meavy can just be seen flowing into the Plym from the right .....
The confluence of the Rivers Plym (from left) and Meavy (from right) to then flow as the Plym under Shaugh Bridge ..... the bridge was rebuilt in 1825 after the original was washed away in a flood in 1823 (Don Balkwill, p.41) .....
The same location, seen from the bridge .....
A 180� panorama of the confluence of the rivers, where the top of the bridge parapet is seen in the two bottom corners of the photograph. Here, the Meavy is on the left and the larger Plym (with the footbridge) is on the right. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Pit for a water wheel, SX 53369 63752, approx. 20-ft long, 5-ft wide and 7-ft deep ..... the clear level area to the left could have been a stamping floor where low-grade iron ore was crushed before mixing into bricks .....
Devon & Dartmoor HER - MDV119809 - Wheel pit at the Ferro Ceramic Mine north-east of Shaugh Bridge, Meavy
National Trust HBSMR No. 105096 - Ferro Ceramic Mine and Shaugh Brickworks, Meavy, Goodameavy - incudes "The waterwheel is sited within the brickworks complex although the 1880 lease suggests that it was used in connection with the iron mine. It may have been linked to the mine by flat-rods to provide pumping and, or lifting power." The origins of the iron mine are unknown although although authority for it was granted in a lease dated 1879. The assets were put up for auction in 1883, the mine seeming to have closed down. Source: Don Balkwill, p.40.
Ariadne Portal - Ferro Ceramic Mine and Shaugh Brickworks, Meavy, Goodameavy - be sure to click "Read more" .....
It is possible that the water wheel continued to power stamps for grinding any sub-standard iron ore from the nearby Shaugh Iron Mine - as opposed to this, nearby, "Dewerstone Iron Mine". The Shaugh Iron Mine was a deep openwork located 600 metres south, at SX 5316 6307, in Square's Wood.
Down in the wheel pit.
Shaugh Brick (and tile) Works, the Ferro-Ceramic Company Ltd. (SX 53327 63715) - a brief late 19th Century venture that used poor-quality iron ore from the nearby Dewerstone Iron Mine and by-products from the china clay drying works. It featured a modern linear drying kiln - the Brogden-Caspar Tunnel Kiln that dried, fired and cooled in one operation. There are diagrams in this reference: British Brick Society: Information 64 - February 1995, pages 9-15. The Ferro-Ceramic Company.
Devon & Dartmoor HER - MDV119815 - Kiln at Shaugh Brick Works, Meavy
Devon & Dartmoor HER - MDV62876 - Shaugh Brickworks, Meavy - includes .... "The origins of the mine are not known, but authority 'to mine and search' for iron was granted in a lease issued to the Ferrio Ceramic Company in 1879. The terms of this lease and the assets of The Dewerstone Iron Mine, as it was then called, are described in an auction inventory dated 1883. The fate of the works after this date is not known but it seems likely that it was soon dismantled because it was disused by 1886. A revolutionary type of tunnel kiln was installed circa 1880. "
National Trust HBSMR No. 105096 - Ferro Ceramic Mine and Shaugh Brickworks, Meavy, Goodameavy - good information.
Low-angle end view of the remaining walls of the of the 'modern' linear Brogden & Casper tunnel kiln: "The plant included a Brogden and Casper's improved tunnel kiln, two working sheds adjoining the brick kiln, nearly completed, tramways, eighteen iron tram wagons, two turntables, a 16 ft by 3 ft water wheel, tools, tramway metals, about 60 tons of iron ore, the manager's office, and a smith's shop." Source: British Brick Society: Information 64 - February 1995, pages 9-15. The Ferro-Ceramic Company.
View of structural features at one point along the kiln that may be associated with the original rising and falling doors that separated parts of the kiln process.
The Ferro-Ceramic Company Limited was registered in Truro on 11 November 1880. Some work was done on the property, which was put up for auction in one lot in May 1883 as Dewerstone Iron Mine. The property was stated to be held in trust for the Ferro-Ceramic Company, in liquidation, and to be held for 21 years from March 1880. The lease contained a licence to make bricks from clay in the sett, clear ground and divert water. There was also power to divert water from the River Cad for a water-wheel for 21 years less a day from December 1879. Power was also held to lower and widen the bridge over the River Plym or River Cad, and to use it for conveying tin, copper, and lead, metals or ores, and other materials except granite and clay. The bridge was held under a lease of 21 years less one day at an annual rent of �20 and 1d per ton on all stuff brought over it.
The horizontal grooves housed the edges of the wagons carrying the bricks through the kiln. The passing of time since the venture was abandoned is marked by the quite sizable tree trunk that is now rotting in the middle of the kiln.
The old brick clay mixing tank - this included poor quality iron ore from the Dewerstone Iron Mine, adjacent. Alternatively, this might be a storage area for bricks before or after firing (Don Balkwill, p.56).
Devon & Dartmoor HER - MDV119817 - Pit to north of kiln at Shaugh Brickworks, Meavy - simply describes a 15.1 m long, 3.5 m wide, 0.9 m deep stone-lined pit.
"Adjacent to the kiln are partly worked ores of decomposed granite, heavily iron stained, which could have provided a clay/sand mixture for making bricks or a low grade iron ore. " There is a photograph online that shows the end of a kiln somewhat like this one in the former Tangrong Brick Kiln, Sanmin District, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan.
View up the River Meavy from beside the brick kiln.
Another view.
Other search results
Two trees clinging to life behind the kiln, the one on the right has a completely exposed bole - the few roots into the bank must bear a lot of weight!
A few metres along the bank, at SX 53395 63837, there is an adit from the iron mine that is fitted with a grille ..... this connected with a shaft that was filled in a few years before 2008 after a bullock fell into it (Don Balkwill, p.56) .....
Closer view, the tree roots are quite impressive.
Looking back at Dewerstone Cottage while descending to the river bank.
Dewerstone Cottage - the counting house, stables and smithy for the granite tramway system; there being two horizontal levels, the higher one being 200 feet above the lower one and served by the inclined plane. The cottage became a rented dwelling after the quarry closed until the last tenants left in 1952. The buildings became derelict until they were turned into a Scouting centre that opened in 1965. Source: Don Balkwill, The Book of Shaugh Parish, pages111-113.
The building was boarded up in early 2009 after many years of use by Scouts - End of an era for Scouts
Current use - Holiday rental for groups - sleep 20-34 and Spirit of Adventure - Dewerstone Cottage - one of two bunkhouses for outdoors activities.
Blacklands Brook Falls, a few paces from the far end of Dewerstone Cottage, photographed from Dewerstone Bridge, adjacent to the cottage.
There may be more than twenty charcoal burning platforms in the wood, circles about 5 or 6 metres in diameter.
There is an extension to this route that goes up the Meavy valley to see the abandoned railway embankment that hastened the end of the quarries, because it became uneconomic to continue taking out the quarried stone by horse and cart - see HERE.
Granite tramway sett at SX 53650 64145 complete with iron nail .....
A low angle view of the iron nail above.
Looking up the inclined plane (near the top) at some of the granite setts that bore the rails of the railway for carrying granite down from the two higher quarries to the lower level and the way out to market - although a lot of the stone went into the railway embankment.
Devon & Dartmoor HER - MDV80768 - Dewerstone Wood quarries, inclined plane
Devon & Dartmoor HER - MDV49020 - Quarry in Dewerstone Wood, Meavy - says very little
Four holes for fastening the fishplate that supported the iron rails.
The top of the inclined plane where a cable drum with a hawser acted as a brake to slow descending wagons of stone - these were counter-balanced by another wagon coming up. There is a passing place with two sets of rails at the halfway point. The hole is where the cables came out from the drum.
Another view.
The remains of the axle of the drum that housed the cable.
Devon & Dartmoor HER - MDV15148 - Ruined cable drum house west of Dewerstone Cottage, Meavy
Closer view.
The angled bearing and the axle of the drum.
Serious locknuts underneath!
View from behind the brake drum building - the inclined plane disappears straight ahead and the track to the two higher level quarries is seen going away to the left, between the pair of tree trunks.
The higher level track to the upper quarries ..... note the abandoned dressed block of stone .....
The first upper level quarry to be encountered, at SX 5370 6406 ..... the quarry is left of the track, the spoil tip is to the right .....
The spoil tip .....
Looking into the quarry. About halfway back, on the left, is a ruined crane base (next photograph) .....
Crane base .....
View from the back of the quarry .....
A tree, clinging to the rock face .....
A possible sett maker's banker, across the track from the quarry on the spoil tip.
Further along the track, 150 metres, is another (2nd) quarry at SX 5350 6384, not very photogenic, but behind the scrub trees is a crane base in fairly good condition .....
Looking from the track into the quarry .....
The above quarry has a large spoil tip from which there is a view up the Meavy valleyat 314� towards Clearbrook.
Wallking back along the lower track, after descending the inclined lane, there is another (3rd) quarry close to SX 5354 6396, with a crane base.
Finally, we encounter a smaller, long disused (4th) quarry at SX 5350 6384.
Pixie Rock aka The Puckie Stone, SX 53492 63823, on a sharp bend in the track. Note the granite setts for the quarry railway.
A low-angle tramway nail in a granite sett at SX 53555 63775, with Pixie Rock visible in the background.
The track showing the Dewerstone Iron Mine adit to the left (opposite the Smithy) and the Smithy to the right .....
An adit (collapsed) to the iron mine - just out of sight behind here is a large filled-in shaft (see two photographs after the river below) .....
Devon & Dartmoor HER - MDV2396 - Ferro Ceramic Mine 75 metres north-east of Shaugh Bridge, Meavy - 14 other records linked at the bottom of this one!
Closer view.
The Smithy, SX 53418 63722.
The Ferro Cerramic Company was founded and a lease obtained in 1870. The assets were offered for auction in 1883. Disused by 1886. Good ore was sent away for smelting, poor quality ore was used in making bricks - these also used waste from the clay drying works nearby.
The Shaugh Iron Mine was a more productive mine south of Shaugh Bridge at approximately SX 53167 63078, about 650 metres away to the south-south-west, near the east bank of the Plym. It was a vertical north-south iron lode worked as a sheer-sided open cut with a shaft, drained by an adit. It was worked 1834-1338 by Messrs Langdon & Paddon. By 1840, there was a leat from the Cad and a water-wheel with flat-rods and pumps. The ore was sent to South Wales for smelting. A long narrow quarry is shown on maps about 250 metres east of the mine where ironstone is also found. Source: AK Hamilton Jenkin (1974), Mines of Devon: Vol. 1: Mines of Devon: The Southern Area, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, pages 119-120. It is possible that these ores found here are continued north to the Dewerstone Iron Mine.
Shaugh Iron Mine - records report an output 1870 - 1874 of 4,670 tons of (limonite) iron ore.
A closer view, from the track .....
The other side of the wall.
There is a drill testing stone embedded in the track by the Smithy with a number of holes started in it .....
The stone is located almost in the middle of the track, level with the uphill end of the Smithy wall, by a tree root. It is visible in the photograph above, also near the uphill end of the fence rail.
A few steps away is the River Plym.
The large filled-in shaft behind the adit ..... the next photograph was taken from the top right of this one .....
Looking down into the shaft.
Looking at the Smithy from the top of the bank, near the shaft. There are a number of shafts recorded for the mine.
Zoomed view.
|
Dartmoor CAM movie. TIPS .....
A movie of Meldon Reservoir well and truly overflowing after the recently announced official drought! |
|
Click the photo to download |
MAP: Red = GPS satellite track of the walk.
INSERT MAPs HERE ............ WATER-MARK!
� Crown copyright 2016 Ordnance
Survey
Licence number 100047373
Also, Copyright � 2005, Memory-Map Europe, with permission.
The walk can be accessed easily from Yelverton, via Meavy or from Plympton by going past the Elfordleigh Hotel. The large car park is at the yellow cross and P symbol on the map. There are also other approaches.
Statistics
Distance - ? km / ? miles
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© Keith Ryan.
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