Forgotten Building Buttspill Tamar Valley Devon is a photograph by Richard Brookes which was uploaded on December 10th, 2020.
Forgotten Building Buttspill Tamar Valley Devon
An abandoned building stands forgotten and almost hidden by encroaching vegetation. An unexpected find during a long day's walk it is set back from a... more
Title
Forgotten Building Buttspill Tamar Valley Devon
Artist
Richard Brookes
Medium
Photograph
Description
An abandoned building stands forgotten and almost hidden by encroaching vegetation. An unexpected find during a long day's walk it is set back from a rough track way on the side of a heavily wooded and overgrown valley in the wonderfully named Buttspill Woods.
This forlorn boarded up property may have been linked to the long abandoned Tamar Valley Mine, the overgrown site of which it overlooks in the valley below.
Perhaps this was the count house or captain's house. It looks like it could tell a few tales. Maybe it holds some ghosts and secrets from the past. The valley descends to the River Tamar, near to Bere Alston on the Bere Peninsula, Devon, SW England, UK.
The Tamar Valley was once a heavily mined area and the Bere Peninsula, in particular, was famous for its royal silver and lead mines dating back several hundred years to medieval times.
According to web sources... unlike lead mined in Derbyshire (mined since Roman times), the silver accompanying the lead in Devon was highly prized from around 1293 & through most of the 1300s during the reigns of Kings Edward I, II & III. Second only to gold as a precious metal, it was valued for use as currency (much needed at the time of the Hundred Years War) as well as for decorative work.
The mines were developed initially in the C13th when, because of high silver content of the ore, they were managed directly by The Crown as Royal Mines. From the mid-C14th The Crown leased the mines to private concerns. The extent of the mineral bearing cross courses of rock was not known. With the royal backing technology improved enabling mines to be drained and deeper working allowed more areas to be exploited (e.g. adits, leats and pumps).
The mines on the Bere Peninsula worked two North-South running and east dipping cross courses. It is thought that this Buttspill site mined the eastern cross course from around 1690 but possibly earlier from Elizabethan times.
Private development began again in the 1780s under the direction of a Christopher Gullet. By 1795 Bere Ferras mine had produced 1,400 tons of lead ore, which yielded 76,000 oz of silver. In 1812 yields from lower levels of this mine were said to amount to 5 tons of ore per fathom on a lode 5 feet wide.
Timeline:
1737 referred to as the 'New Works of the Silver Mines'
1843 reopened as Green Valley Mine and engine erected but shortly after renamed Wheal Fancy.
1855 reopened again as Bere Alston United Mine & worked mostly on 17 & 27 fathom levels. It worked from Western Engine Shaft. A smelting furnace was erected but production focused mostly on high-quality fluorspar. Main shafts were Western Engine Shaft & Engine Shaft. ‘Worked in 2 parts. A small working on an adit close to the river with a 20-fm shaft. The larger working on Western Engine Shaft to a depth of 57-fms. A second shaft to the south reaches the 17-fm level and connects to Engine Shaft.
1870-76 Output 95 tons of 74% lead ore, 650 oz silver, 20 tons pyrite & 620 tons of fluorspar.
1885-6 as Tamar Valley Mine, 90 tons of fluorspar was produced.
In summary, the largest outputs in the area were recorded during the middle C19th when, with the advent of steam power improving drainage and haulage, some mines were developed below 200 fathoms (1200 feet). However, in most cases yield quality in terms of silver per ton of ore & quantity of ore decreased with depth. By 1890 mines had closed & apart from a few half-hearted attempts, mostly during the shortage years of the First World War (1914-18), no further work below ground has since been undertaken (source: A.K. Hamilton Jenkin).
There is still evidence of many such operations in the area although many associated buildings have been cleared or lost to undergrowth. The Romans knew of the area too. A recently discovered Roman fort is located on a hilltop on the opposite side of the river Tamar near Calstock. The fort was found in 2007 when archaeologists were surveying the site of possible medieval silver smelting that had been carried out there in medieval times of ore from sources mined on the Bere Peninsula. The location was was close to forests allocated for this purpose as sources of wood to be used in the smelting process.
Uploaded
December 10th, 2020
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