UNESCO World Heritage Site | |
---|---|
Location | Gulworthy, West Devon, Devon, United Kingdom |
Part of | "Tamar Valley Mining District" part of Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape |
Criteria | Cultural: (ii)(iii)(iv) |
Reference | 1215-010i |
Inscription | 2006 (30th Session) |
Coordinates | 50°30′18″N4°10′52″W / 50.505°N 4.181°W Coordinates: 50°30′18″N4°10′52″W / 50.505°N 4.181°W |
New Quay is a small once industrial abandoned hamlet and intensive mining port on the steep, winding banks of the River Tamar in Devon. New Quay village is immediately east of and downstream of the similar port of Morwellham Quay (now the heart of an open-air museum). New Quay was an important copper, tin and later arsenic port serving the local mines including the George and Charlotte Mine, Bedford Consolidated Mine and Gawton Arsenic Mine. Since July 2006 New Quay is within the World Heritage Site that is the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape. [1]
Closest mines are the Gawton Arsenic Mine, a scheduled ancient monument, [2] Bedford Consolidated Mine and the George and Charlotte Mine. [3] Across the water was Harewood Consolidated Mine. On the eastern high ridge were Tavy Consolidated Mine, East and West Liscombe and Wheal Tamar Copper Mines, [4] and the William and Mary Mine.
As with Morwellham, the whole area is in the south of the highly scattered late 19th century parish of Gulworthy, today a civil parish and a small contributor parish to an ecclesiastical benefice in the Church of England, previously a hamlet of Tavistock. [5] [6] The mining families in the community were split between the established church and other sects of Protestantism - the then small town of Bere Alston to the south having had chapels or meeting houses for these in 1887 [7] including a Presbyterian Church in 1822. [8]
It to an extent benefited from the short but major engineering feat of the Tavistock Canal, forming a junction with the Tamar at Morwellham quay, completed in June 1817 with a tunnel of 1.75 miles (2.82 km) altogether built at an expense of £68,000 (equivalent to £5,297,000in 2021) being in engineering and in export of ores a remarkable achievement before its decline in the 1860s. [9] [10]
An account of the county in 1818 states "the Tamar is navigable to New Quay...for vessels of about 130 or 140 tons: vessels of fourteen feet draught go up to Morwell-ham quay, six miles from Plymouth" — the first distance appears to be an error. [4]
Since the village was abandoned in the early 20th century it became overgrown and large cut masonry stones from the quay were stolen. In 2008 work was begun to halt New Quay's further destruction: many of the buildings were stabilised and repaired and much of the undergrowth was cut back.
Trains on the mine tramway from Morwellham stop at new Quay with local guides to show structures and explain the mining and cultural activities of the valley.
The site can be visited without guides on foot and further public access is planned for the future.
William Courtenay was Archbishop of Canterbury (1381–1396), having previously been Bishop of Hereford and Bishop of London.
The Tamar is a river in south west England, that forms most of the border between Devon and Cornwall. A part of the Tamar Valley is a World Heritage Site due to its historic mining activities.
Tavistock is an ancient stannary and market town within West Devon, England. It is situated on the River Tavy from which its name derives. At the 2011 census the three electoral wards had a population of 13,028. It traces its recorded history back to at least 961 when Tavistock Abbey, whose ruins lie in the centre of the town, was founded. Its most famous son is Sir Francis Drake.
Bere Alston is a village in West Devon in the county of Devon in England. It forms part of the civil parish of Bere Ferrers.
Calstock is a civil parish and a large village in south east Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, on the border with Devon. The village is situated on the River Tamar 6 miles (9.7 km) south west of Tavistock and 10 miles (16 km) north of Plymouth.
Mining in Cornwall and Devon, in the southwest of Britain, began in the early Bronze Age, around 2150 BC. Tin, and later copper, were the most commonly extracted metals. Some tin mining continued long after the mining of other metals had become unprofitable, but ended in the late 20th century. In 2021, it was announced that a new mine was extracting battery-grade lithium carbonate, more than 20 years after the closure of the last South Crofty tin mine in Cornwall in 1998.
Gunnislake is a large village in east Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated in the Tamar Valley approximately ten miles (16 km) north of Plymouth
The East Cornwall Mineral Railway was a 1,067 mm gauge railway line, opened in 1872 to connect mines and quarries in the Callington and Gunnislake areas in east Cornwall with shipping at Calstock on the River Tamar. The line included a rope-worked incline to descend to the quay at Calstock.
Morwellham Quay is an historic river port in Devon, England that developed to support the local mines. The port had its peak in the Victorian era and is now run as a tourist attraction and museum. It is the terminus of the Tavistock Canal, and has its own copper mine.
The Tavistock Canal is a canal in the county of Devon in England. It was constructed early in the 19th century to link the town of Tavistock to Morwellham Quay on the River Tamar, where cargo could be loaded into ships. The canal is still in use to supply water to a hydro-electric power plant at Morwellham Quay, and forms part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site. It is unusual for a canal, as it has a gentle slope over its length, resulting in a considerable flow of water.
John Taylor was a British mining engineer.
Sir Henry Ford, of Nutwell in Devon was four times MP for Tiverton between 1664 and 1685 and twice Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1669–70 and 1672–73.
Sydenham House in the parish of Marystow in Devon, England, is a seventeenth-century manor house. The Grade I listed building is situated about thirteen miles south-west of Okehampton, on a 1,200 acres (490 ha) estate. It was built by Sir Thomas Wise (d.1629) between 1600 and 1612, incorporating an older structure. It was partially destroyed by fire in 2012. The gardens are Grade II listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
Devon Great Consols was a copper mine near Tavistock in Devon. The lease on the site was taken from the Duke of Bedford in 1844 by a group of investors. The 1,024 shares, sold at one pound each, were divided among the six men. Earlier attempts to mine this property had all ended in failure.
Luffincott is a civil parish in the far west of Devon, England. It forms part of the local government district of Torridge and lies about six miles south of the town of Holsworthy. The parish is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Tetcott, Ashwater, St Giles on the Heath and Northcott. Its western border follows the River Tamar which forms the county boundary with Cornwall.
Richard Crocker of Devon, England, was a Member of Parliament for Tavistock in Devon in 1335. His descendants were the prominent Crocker family of Crocker's Hele in the parish of Meeth, Devon, later seated at Lyneham in the parish of Yealmpton, Devon until 1740.
William Crocker, living during the reign of King Edward III (1327-1377), of Crocker's Hele in the parish of Meeth, Devon, was a Member of Parliament. His descendants were the prominent Crocker family seated at Lyneham in the parish of Yealmpton, Devon until 1740. William Crocker is the earliest member of the family recorded in the Heraldic Visitations of Devon, although one of his ancestors is known to have been Richard Crocker (fl.1335) of Devon, England, a Member of Parliament for Tavistock in Devon in 1335.
Haccombe with Combe is a civil parish in the Teignbridge local government district of Devon, England. The parish lies immediately to the east of the town of Newton Abbot, and south of the estuary of the River Teign. Across the estuary are the parishes of Kingsteignton and Bishopsteignton. The parish is bordered on the east by Stokeinteignhead and on the south by Coffinswell. Most of the southern boundary of the parish follows the minor ridge road that runs between the suburbs of Milber in Newton Abbot and Barton in Torquay and it bisects the Iron Age hill fort of Milber Down.
The manor of Alverdiscott was a manor situated in north Devon, England, which included the village of Alverdiscott.
Bagtor is an historic estate in the parish of Ilsington in Devon, England. It was the birthplace of John Ford (1586-c.1639) the playwright and poet. The Elizabethan mansion of the Ford family survives today at Bagtor as the service wing of a later house appended in about 1700.