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Summary

The remains East Brookwood or Wrey Consols Mine. Dispersed along the north bank of the Holy Brook, south of the ruined farmstead of Steart.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX67NW91
• National Monuments Record: SX76NW98
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 1441563
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 1468857

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• EXTRACTIVE PIT (Post Medieval to Early 20th Century - 1540 AD to 1901 AD (Between))
• HORSE WHIM (Post Medieval to Early 20th Century - 1540 AD to 1901 AD (Between))
• TIN MINE (Post Medieval to Early 20th Century - 1540 AD to 1901 AD (Between))
• WHEEL PIT (Post Medieval to Early 20th Century - 1540 AD to 1901 AD (Between))

Full description

Hamilton Jenkin, Dr. A. K., 1981, Mines of Devon: North and East of Dartmoor (Monograph). SDV364319.

Ordnance Survey, 2021, MasterMap 2021 (Cartographic). SDV364015.

'Pit (disused)' depicted on the modern mapping.

Historic England, 2021-2022, NRHE to HER website, Accessed 10/05/2021 (Website). SDV364039.

(30/03/2006) The remains of East Brookwood Mine or Wrey Consols are dispersed along the north bank of the Holy Brook, south of the ruined farmstead of Steart. This unsuccessful copper mine is recorded as having operated between the late 1850s and about 1868. It was known by the name of Wrey, after the landowner Sir Bouchier Wrey, until 1861 when it was renamed East Brookwood. As Hamilton Jenkin (citing Hamilton Jenkin, J. K., 1981, Mines of Devon: North and East of Dartmoor) comments it is difficult to understand why it was so named as it is in fact north-west of Brookwood rather than east, but it was probably an attempt to associate the mine with the relatively successful name of Brookwood Mine. After the mine closed the waterwheels machinery and all equipment including pumps and tramways were put up for sale in February 1869 (citing Exeter Flying Post 24/02/1869).
An undated abandoned mine plan (Devon Record Office DRO AMP R224B) depicts two shafts associated with an adit. Fieldwork has only identified one shaft so far though the area to the north of the mine is within impenetrable gorse and further examples may remain to be noted.
The working area consists of a large open cutting with near vertical sides which strikes north of the stream at SX 7180 6839, and into the steep slope of the hillside. An adit at the foot of the scarp within the cutting is now mostly blocked by debris but remains accessible for about 30m and a large, flat-topped spoil heap extends away from the cutting to the south.
Upslope of the cutting approximately 15m east-north-east is a blocked shaft, just below the track at SX 7183 6842. The shaft has a diameter of very approximately 3-4m and is surrounded on the south side by a levelled area. A shallow, approximately rectangular cutting on the south-east side of the level area may represent the site of a bob pit which was never completed or has been robbed since abandonment. Two parallel sections of wall which would have housed the balance beam survive built against the east side of the shaft.
12m south-east of the shaft is a probable whim plat, comprising a flat-topped circular earthwork mound built against the hillside, with traces of stone walling around the outer circumference. The upper surface has a diameter of 6.5m and is very slightly concaved. A shallow stone-lined channel of 0.3m wide by 0.1m deep runs across the top of the feature and may have been intended to accommodate a flat rod to the bob pit.
Adjacent to the west side of the adit cutting at SX 7179 6840 is the faint outline of a ruined building, surviving mostly as an earthwork though the masonry of one corner is visible.
A second flat-topped conical mound 28m north of the shaft is likely to be a spoil dump.
A small trial adit at SX 7173 6844 drives north into the slope for only a few metres. Tree roots now obscure the entrance. A flat-topped spoil heap 25m to the north at SX 7171 6841 appears rather too large to be associated with this adit and may also contain material removed from the cutting and the eastern adit but may also represent an attempt at damming the stream.
A wheelpit is sited 255m south east of the shaft, near the confluence of Holy Brook and the Shuttaford or Steart Brook at SX 7203 6825 (see separate entry SX 76 NW 99 / MDV130687).
The site of a wheelpit to house a second waterwheel of 15ft diameter advertised in the sale has not yet been identified (citing Newman, P., 30/03/2006, EH Archaeological Field Investigation).
Recorded in Event: Hidden Dartmoor: Peripheral Mines (Phase 1 Pilot), measured survey, 01/10/2005 - 31/05/2006.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8574 - Hidden Dartmoor: Peripheral Mines (Phase 1 Pilot)

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