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Summary

Section of wall appears to have been built for a purpose associated with the mining but because of damage by falling trees and a build-up of vegetation, that purpose is now unclear. It may have been a turning and loading area or it may have been an early dressing floor dating from the 1798-1807 operations.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX67SE147
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 619677
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX67SE/14/18

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• STAMPING MILL (Built, XVIII to XIX - 1790 AD (Between) to 1810 AD (Between))

Full description

SUBSHEET 17, Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV233431.

Brimpts south mine - gully. Field wall + retaining wall at sx67007384 and culvert at sx67017384. A field wall across the valley bottom becomes a retaining wall at its n end with 3 right angle bends in a short distance, then an 11m straight length to terminate at a drainage channel from the deep adit (subsheet 17). This retaining wall appears to have been built for a purpose associated with the mining but because of damage by falling trees and a build-up of vegetation, that purpose is now unclear. It may have been a turning and loading area or it may have been an early dressing floor dating from the 1798-1807 operations. The 1802/3 2" draft os map shows a structure in this vicinity.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV233434.

Des=greeves, t. /list of doubtful devon tin mills c 1450-c 1750/(1981)no 8 (in smr). Building east of brimpts farm. Probable 19c structure. See sx67se/43 (greeves).

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV233436.

Hamilton-jenkin, a. K. /mines of devon: 1 the southern area/(1974)95-7.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV233438.

Des=bird, r. + hirst, p. /(-/11/1996)b3/18;b3/19/worksheets in smr.
Brimpts south mine - gully. Field wall + retaining wall at sx67007384 and culvert at sx67017384.
Des=a field wall across the valley bottom becomes a retaining wall at its n end with 3 right angle bends in a short distance, then an 11m straight length to terminate at a drainage channel from the deep adit (subsheet 17). This retaining wall appears to have been built for a purpose associated with the mining but because of damage by falling trees and a build-up of vegetation, that purpose is now unclear. It may have been a turning and loading area or it may have been an early dressing floor dating from the 1798-1807 operations. The 1802/3 2" draft os map shows a structure in this vicinity.
As it approaches the area mentioned above, the small stream from brimpts farm has been placed in a culvert with apparent granite flagstone capping for a distance of abut 11m. The long section of retaining wall taken with the extremes of the culvert appear to define a rectangular area suggestive of a dressing floor but no further detail can be discerned (bird + hirst).

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV233439.

Des=bird, r. + hirst, p. /the brimpts tin mines/(dtrg)/(forthcoming).

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV233440.

Des=bird, r. + hirst, p. /dtrg newsletter/8(jan 1995)8-11/the brimpts tin mines.

Royal Commission for the Historical Monuments of England, 1987-1993, Duchy Farms Project Survey Visit, S. Probert (Report - Survey). SDV350839.

(09/11/1988) "I, Richard Tuckett of Dunnabridge, in the parish of Lydford, do solemnly declare that I am now 79 years of age and that about 50 years since [c.1800] I was in the service of Mr Joseph Sanders of Brimpts and that whilst in his employ I was in the habit of drawing with a slide-but tin stuff from the shaft near to the stable, and also from a level in a field called the Potatoe Field, part of Brimpts estate, down to the stamps, and I continued drawing tin stuff from those places for two or three years" (Hamilton Jenkin, 1974).
Several well constructed walls and revetments at SX 67007384 at the foot of a steep E facing wooded slope can probably be attributed to a stamping mill.
Two revetments, 0.9m high, form the NW and SW sides of a wheelpit, measuring 11.2m NE-SW by 3.2m NW-SE. A slight scarp denotes the SE margin. There is no trace of a leat supplying the wheelpit though a wide channel extends 15m W from its SW end. Immediately SW of the wheelpit and adjacent to the S margin of the channel are remnants of a small structure. Approximately 5m NW-SE by 6.5m NE-SW it remains as two mortared boulder walls between 1.1 and 1.5m high and 0.6m thick.
A stream rising at SX 66777379 flows past the site to meet the East Dart River. Immediately adjacent to the site it runs through a culvert of large granite slabs. A level area between this and the wheelpit was probably occupied by the stamps and a dressing floor.
A further streamlet rises at the end of a channel from the possible adit at SX 67007386 (SX 67 SE 145), and along this course several low revetments seem to have formed settling tanks.
This site may have housed the "stamps" mentioned in the testimony of Richard Tuckett (Hamilton Jenkin, 1974) which were operational in the late C18th/early C19th. No reference to a stamping mill is made in the 1840 Tithe Apportionment document and it is very unlikely that the company operating the mines on Brimpts during the 1850's built a stamping mill in this area (Hamilton Jenkin, 1974). The 'shaft' and 'level' mentioned by Tuckett as the source of a tin ore are no longer visible on the ground.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8634 - Brimpts Farm, Duchy Farms Survey
• EDV8409 - Dartmoor Royal Forest Project
• EDV8423 - Duchy Farms Project

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