The industrial archaeology

Industrial archaeology

Industrial archaeology, like other branches of archaeology, is the study of material culture from the past, but with a focus on industry. Strictly speaking, industrial archaeology includes sites from the earliest times to the most recent...

 of Dartmoor

Dartmoor

Dartmoor is an area of moorland in south Devon, England. Protected by National Park status, it covers .The granite upland dates from the Carboniferous period of geological history. The moorland is capped with many exposed granite hilltops known as tors, providing habitats for Dartmoor wildlife. The...

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.

A good general guide to the commercial activities on Dartmoor at the end of the 19th century is William Crossing

William Crossing

William Crossing was a writer and documenter of Dartmoor and Dartmoor life. He lived successively at South Brent, Brentor and at Mary Tavy but died at Plymouth.-Early life:...

's The Dartmoor Worker.

Mining

In former times, lead, silver, tin and copper were mined extensively on Dartmoor. The most obvious evidence of mining to the casual visitor to Dartmoor are the remains of the old engine-house at Wheal Betsy which is alongside the A386 road between Tavistock and Okehampton

Okehampton

Okehampton is a town and civil parish in West Devon in the English county of Devon. It is situated at the northern edge of Dartmoor, and has an estimated population of 7,155.-History:...

. The word Wheal has a particular meaning in Devon

Devon

Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

 and Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

 being either a tin

Tin

Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. It is a main group metal in group 14 of the periodic table. Tin shows chemical similarity to both neighboring group 14 elements, germanium and lead and has two possible oxidation states, +2 and the slightly more stable +4...

 or a copper

Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...

 mine, however in the case of Wheal Betsy it was principally lead and silver which were mined.

Once widely practised by many miners across the moor, by the early 1900s only a few tinners remained, and mining had almost completely ceased twenty years later. Some of the more significant mines were Eylesbarrow

Eylesbarrow mine

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 mine and the Birch Tor and Vitifer mines. Its name has several...

, Knock Mine, Vitifer Mine and Hexworthy Mine. The last active mine in the Dartmoor area was Great Rock Mine

Great Rock Mine

Great Rock Mine is a disused micaceous haematite mine about 3 km north of the town of Bovey Tracey in Devon, England. It was worked from the 19th century until 1969, and was the last active mine in the Dartmoor National Park area....

, which shut down in 1969.

Quarrying

Dartmoor granite has been used in many Devon and Cornish buildings. The prison at Princetown was built from granite taken from Walkhampton Common. When the horse tramroad from Plymouth

Plymouth

Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...

 to Princetown was completed in 1823, large quantities of granite were more easily transported.

There were three major granite quarries on the moor: Haytor, Foggintor and Merrivale. The granite quarries around Haytor were the source of the stone used in several famous structures, including the New London Bridge, completed in 1831. This granite was transported from the moor via the Haytor Granite Tramway

Haytor Granite Tramway

The Haytor Granite Tramway was a unique granite-railed tramway running down from Haytor Down, Dartmoor, Devon. The tramway was built in 1820 to carry Haytor granite, which was of fine grain and high quality, down from the heights of Dartmoor for the construction of houses, bridges and other...

, stretches of which are still visible.

The extensive quarries at Foggintor provided granite for the construction of London's Nelson's Column

Nelson's Column

Nelson's Column is a monument in Trafalgar Square in central London built to commemorate Admiral Horatio Nelson, who died at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The monument was constructed between 1840 and 1843 to a design by William Railton at a cost of £47,000. It is a column of the Corinthian...

 in the early 1840s, and New Scotland Yard was faced with granite from the quarry at Merrivale. Merrivale Quarry continued excavating and working its own granite until the 1970s, producing gravestones and agricultural rollers

Roller (agricultural tool)

The roller is an agricultural tool used for flattening land or breaking up large clumps of soil, especially after ploughing. Typically, rollers are pulled by tractors or, prior to mechanisation, a team of animals such as horses or oxen....

. Work at Merrivale continued until the 1990s, for the last 20 years imported stone such as gabbro

Gabbro

Gabbro refers to a large group of dark, coarse-grained, intrusive mafic igneous rocks chemically equivalent to basalt. The rocks are plutonic, formed when molten magma is trapped beneath the Earth's surface and cools into a crystalline mass....

 from Norway and Italian marble was dressed and polished. The unusual pink granite at Great Trowlesworthy Tor was also quarried, and there were many other small granite quarries dotted around the moor. Various metamorphic rocks were also quarried in the metamorphic aureole around the edge of the moor, most notably at Meldon

Meldon Quarry

Meldon Quarry is a granite quarry in the parish of Meldon, West Devon, England. Meldon Quarry railway station is a railway station which serves the quarry.- History :...

.

Gunpowder factory

In 1844 a factory for making gunpowder was built on the open moor, not far from Postbridge. Gunpowder was needed for the tin mines and granite quarries then in operation on the moor. The buildings were widely spaced from one another for safety and the mechanical power for grinding ("incorporating") the powder was derived from waterwheels driven by a leat

Leat

A leat is the name, common in the south and west of England and in Wales, for an artificial watercourse or aqueduct dug into the ground, especially one supplying water to a watermill or its mill pond...

.

Now known as "Powdermills" or "Powder Mills", there are extensive remains of this factory still visible. Two chimneys still stand and the walls of the two sturdily-built incorporating mills with central waterwheels survive well: they were built with substantial walls but flimsy roofs so that in the event of an explosion, the force of the blast would be directed safely upwards. The ruins of a number of ancillary buildings also survive. A proving mortar

Mortar (weapon)

A mortar is an indirect fire weapon that fires explosive projectiles known as bombs at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It is typically muzzle-loading and has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber....

—a type of small cannon used to gauge the strength of the gunpowder—used by the factory still lies by the side of the road to the nearby pottery.

Peat-cutting

Peat-cutting for fuel occurred at some locations on Dartmoor until certainly the 1970s, usually for personal use. The right of Dartmoor commoners to cut peat for fuel is known as turbary. These rights were conferred a long time ago, pre-dating most written records. The area once known as the Turbary of Alberysheved between the River Teign

River Teign

The River Teign is a river in the county of Devon, England.Like many Devon rivers, the Teign rises on Dartmoor, near Cranmere Pool. Its course on the moor is crossed by a clapper bridge near Teigncombe, just below the prehistoric Kestor Settlement. It leaves the moor at its eastern side, flowing...

 and the headwaters of the River Bovey

River Bovey

Bovey is a river in the Dartmoor moors in Devon in south-west England....

 is mentioned in the Perambulation of the Forest of Dartmoor

Forest of Dartmoor

The Forest of Dartmoor is an ancient royal forest covering part of Dartmoor, Devon, England.A royal forest was an area reserved by the king for hunting, and William the Conqueror introduced the concept of forest law in England in the 11th century...

 of 1240 (by 1609 the name of the area had changed to Turf Hill).

An attempt was made to commercialise the cutting of peat in 1901 at Rattle Brook Head, however this quickly failed.

Warrens

From at least the 13th century until early in the 20th, rabbits were kept on a commercial scale, both for their flesh and their fur. Documentary evidence for this exists in place names such as Trowlesworthy Warren (mentioned in a document dated 1272) and Warren House Inn

Warren House Inn

The Warren House Inn is a remote and isolated public house in the heart of Dartmoor, Devon, England. It is the highest pub in southern England at 1,425 feet above sea level...

. The physical evidence, in the form of pillow mounds is also plentiful, for example there are 50 pillow mounds at Legis Tor Warren. The sophistication of the warreners is shown by the existence of vermin traps that were placed near the warrens to capture weasels and stoats attempting to get at the rabbits.

The significance of the term warren

Warren (free)

Free warren—often simply warren—refers to a type of franchise or privilege conveyed by a sovereign in mediaeval England to a subject, promising to hold them harmless for killing game of certain species within a stipulated area, usually a wood or small forest...

nowadays is not what it once was. In the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 it was a privileged place, and the creatures of the warren were protected by the king 'for his princely delight and pleasure'.

The subject of warrening on Dartmoor was addressed in Eden Phillpotts

Eden Phillpotts

Eden Phillpotts was an English author, poet and dramatist. He was born in India, educated in Plymouth, Devon, and worked as an insurance officer for 10 years before studying for the stage and eventually becoming a writer....

' story The River.

Farming

Farming has been practised on Dartmoor since time immemorial. The dry-stone walls which separate fields and mark boundaries give an idea of the extent to which the landscape has been shaped by farming. There is little or no arable farming within the moor, mostly being given over to livestock farming on account of the thin and rocky soil. Some Dartmoor farms are remote in the extreme.

Sources