Whiteworks | |
---|---|
Remains of tin mining at Whiteworks | |
Location within Devon | |
OS grid reference | SX 612710 |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | PRINCETOWN |
Postcode district | PL20 |
Police | Devon and Cornwall |
Fire | Devon and Somerset |
Ambulance | South Western |
Whiteworks (or White Works) is a former mining hamlet near the town of Princetown, within Dartmoor National Park, in the English county of Devon. Tin mining is central to the history of settlement at Whiteworks, which was once home to one of Dartmoor's largest tin mines. The original cottages and their inhabitants were related to this industry, until the area became used increasingly for farming in the 20th century. The site has now largely been abandoned, although Whiteworks is still on the route of many walks including Abbots Way Walk passes 500 m to the west.
Whiteworks is situated in an area of open moorland about 3 kilometres (2 mi) south-east of Princetown, overlooking the notoriously dangerous Fox Tor Mires. A difficult path leads across the mires to Fox Tor itself, which lies about 1.5 kilometres (1 mi) south-east of the hamlet. Vehicle access to Whiteworks is via a narrow dead-end road branching off from the B3212 at Princetown. This road is an extension of the one constructed by Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt to his property at Tor Royal. [1]
The granite at Whiteworks has been subject to a process of kaolinisation: the feldspar minerals have decomposed to form a white clay known as kaolin. [2] As a result, when the tin ore cassiterite was mined there, it was white in colour, giving the name 'White Works' to the site.
There are a few species of moss particular to the Whiteworks area, namely Polytrichum urnigerum , which is found in streams, and Bryum turbinatum . [3] [4]
According to the evidence of stannary rolls, tin working at the Whiteworks mine site dates back to 1180, when it was associated with mediaeval field systems on the eastern edge of Fox Tor. [5] More active mining began around 1790, when the Industrial Revolution began to fuel demand for tin, while also providing the technology to move from opencast mining to subsurface methods, previously impossible on the difficult Dartmoor terrain. [6] Initially, there were no tin smelting houses operating in Devon, so Whiteworks sent tin ore to Calenick Smelting House, near the Cornish town of Truro. [7]
Mining continued irregularly during the 19th century, accompanied by drainage work designed to make the Fox Tor Mire safer. [8] During part of this time the mine was one of the largest on Dartmoor, along with Eylesbarrow and Gobbet. [1] [9] At the beginning of the 1870s, for example, the mine produced 8–9 tons of tin ore per year. [10] At this time, the mine was owned by Tavistock-based mining entrepreneur Moses Bawden. [11]
By the 1880s the mine was disused, [12] [13] although a revival of ore values at the beginning of the 20th century meant that mining activity was briefly recommenced. Mining at the site then ceased completely in 1914. [6] For these final years of activity, the mine was under shared ownership with Golden Dagger Mine and Hexworthy Mine. [14] Around the turn of the century, a new farmhouse had also been constructed, [15] and with the cessation of mining activity, the land around Whiteworks was increasingly used for livestock farming and breeding animals such as ponies. [11]
By the 1980s, Whiteworks had mostly been abandoned and some of the buildings, including the farmhouse, were demolished by the Dartmoor National Park Authority. [15] A few cottages remain complete, one of which is owned by Plymouth College and used as a base for outdoor activities. Other buildings, related to previous mining or farming activities, lie in ruins, interspersed with the fenced-off remains of mine shafts. These ruins, combined with the surrounding geography, make Whiteworks a popular location for hikers, especially on walks starting in Princetown. The annual Abbots Way Walk on the 1st Sunday in October on its way from Buckfast Abbey to Tavistock pass with 500 m of Whiteworks.
The hamlet appears in the novel Miser's Money, by Dartmoor author Eden Phillpotts. The area around Whiteworks also provided inspiration to Arthur Conan Doyle for the Sherlock Holmes story The Hound of the Baskervilles : it is believed that the Fox Tor Mire is the location of the fictional Grimpen Mire, which would place Baskerville Hall on the site of the cottages at Whiteworks. [16]
Childe's Tomb is a granite cross on Dartmoor, Devon, England. Although not in its original form, it is more elaborate than most of the crosses on Dartmoor, being raised upon a constructed base, and it is known that a kistvaen is underneath.
Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, South West England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers 954 km2 (368 sq mi).
The industrial archaeology of Dartmoor covers a number of the industries which have, over the ages, taken place on Dartmoor, and the remaining evidence surrounding them. Currently only three industries are economically significant, yet all three will inevitably leave their own traces on the moor: china clay mining, farming and tourism.
Princetown is a village located within Dartmoor national park in the English county of Devon. It is the principal settlement of the civil parish of Dartmoor Forest.
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.
Lydford, sometimes spelled Lidford, is a village, once an important town, in Devon, seven miles (11 km) north of Tavistock on the western fringe of Dartmoor in the West Devon district. There is an electoral ward with the same name which includes Princetown. The population of this ward at the 2011 census was 2,047.
Merrivale is a locality in western Dartmoor, in the West Devon district of Devon, England. It is best known for the nearby series of Bronze Age megalithic monuments to the south and a former granite quarry.
Crazywell Pool or Crazy Well Pool is a large pond situated about 3 km (1.9 mi) south of Princetown just off the path between Burrator and Whiteworks on the western side of Dartmoor, Devon, England at grid reference SX582705. It is about 100 metres (110 yd) long and has a surface area of about 3,500 square metres.
Fox Tor is a relatively minor tor on Dartmoor in the county of Devon, England.
The tin mining industry on Dartmoor, Devon, England, is thought to have originated in pre-Roman times, and continued right through to the 20th century, when the last commercially worked mine closed in November 1930. From the 12th century onwards tin mining was regulated by a stannary parliament which had its own laws.
The Erme is a river in south Devon, England. From its source on Dartmoor it flows in a generally southerly direction past some of the best-preserved archaeological remains on the moor. It leaves the moor at the town of Ivybridge and continues southward, passing the settlements of Ermington, Modbury and Holbeton. Near Holbeton it becomes a ria and empties into the English Channel in Bigbury Bay, between the rivers Yealm and Avon.
A stannary was an administrative division established under stannary law in the English counties of Cornwall and Devon to manage the collection of tin coinage, which was the duty payable on the metal tin smelted from the ore cassiterite mined in the region. In Cornwall, the duty was passed to the Duchy of Cornwall; in Devon to the Crown.
Mining in Cornwall and Devon, in the southwest of Britain, is thought to have begun in the early-middle Bronze Age with the exploitation of cassiterite. 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.
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.
Bellever is a hamlet in Dartmoor, Devon, England. It is located on the river East Dart about 2 kilometres (1 mi) south of Postbridge.
The Dartmoor crosses are a series of stone crosses found in Dartmoor National Park in the centre of Devon, England. Many of them are old navigational aids, needed because of the remoteness of the moorland and its typically bad weather. Some mark medieval routes between abbeys. Other crosses were erected as memorials, for prayer, as town or market crosses, in churchyards, and as boundary markers. The crosses were erected over a long period of time, some as recently as 100 years ago, the earliest probably almost 1,000 years ago.
Eylesbarrow mine was a tin mine on Dartmoor, Devon, England that was active during the first half of the 19th century. In its early years it was one of the largest and most prosperous of the Dartmoor tin mines, along with Whiteworks and the Birch Tor and Vitifer mines. Its name has several variant spellings, such as Eylesburrow, Ailsborough, Ellisborough, Hillsborough etc. It was also known as Wheal Ruth for a short period around 1850. The extensive remains lie to the north of the River Plym, less than 1 mile (1.6 km) north-east of Drizzlecombe, on the southern shoulder of the hill called Eylesbarrow on top of which are two prominent Bronze Age barrows.
Birch Tor and Vitifer mine was a tin mine on Dartmoor, Devon, England. Located in the valley of the Redwater Brook, to the east of the B3212 Moretonhampstead to Princetown road, below the Warren House Inn, the mine was worked between the mid–18th century and 1925.
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