The Antiquarian (Robert Burnard) vs. The Mine
Captain (Moses Bawden).
Dartmoor folklore has it that in Chaw Gully is what
was once a supposed mine shaft worked by the Romans
and known as the "Roman Mine". It has also been
suggested that even before the Romans, Dartmoor tin
was being traded with the Phoenicians aka the "Jew
Market".
January 1907 - "Sir, if Chough is the same as Chaw
Gulley this is not Wall Shaft Gully. The shaft I
referred to is circular not oblong. These details
have no public interest, the only point of moment is
whether the Romans worked Vitifer Mine, and I submit
that walled shafts such as might have been built at
any comparatively late period (Mr. Bawden gives an
oblong example), in the absence of other evidence
does not justify an affirmative opinion. - Robert
Burnard, Huccaby House, 18th January." - The Western
Morning News
between Mr. Burnard and myself has not been of much interest to your
readers, but with your permission I will give you a
few particulars of my association with the Birch Tor
and Vitifer mines, for as much as it may be worth of
the antiquity of them.
As the shaft in Chough (birds of the jackdaw family
build their nests in that gully), or "Chaw" or
Lean's Gully is not the one spoken of in Mr.
Burnard's letter. The shaft he means is, I presume,
the one on the Birch Tor Lode in Birch Tor Gully.
This circular walled shaft, I, at the instigation of
a man named Paull (between thirty or forty years
ago) put in repair. I did so to take a tribute pitch
in the shallow workings, as he was under the
impression that he could make a little fortune out
of it for us both by the tin he would get. but
unfortunately he did not find sufficient to give
himself ordinary wages so the shaft was again
abandoned...
From my first association with the management of
these mines these mines in 1864 I was particularly
impressed with the enormous working that must have
been for centuries carried on to excavate such
gullies as those at these mines. Tens of millions of
tons of stuff must have been taken out of them to
get down to water level, a depth below which the
ancients did not go and I know of no such evidence
of ancient mining in any part of Devon or Cornwall
as is seen here, and one can see (much, I must
admit, by the eye of faith, as per most of the
history of Dartmoor0, the people who lived in the
huts of Grimspound and in the huts of the Birch Tor
valley, engaged in cleaning, the then, I have no
doubt precious ore, and conveying it to the
south-western sea ports for barter to the "Jew
Market"...
My reason for supporting that Dartmoor tin was some
of the first tin exported from our shores is on
account of its purity. It requires no cleaning as
there is no pyrites, either arsenical, copper, or
sulphur in the tin ores of mid Dartmoor, it is
simply washed and smelted but most of the western
tin requires cleaning before it can be cleaned fit
for smelting. I may also presume - also by the eye
of faith - that the Romans when in that part of the
country got tin from Birch Tor, as well as those
before them. - Moses Bawden, January 22nd." - The
Western Morning News.
