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Summary

Tin streamworks along Ruddycleave Water. Tin streamworks extending from a short distance above Blackslade Ford to Ruddycleave. 4 hectares of tin streamworks extend south along Blackslade Water from the lower end of the mire. It is likely that they once extended further north though the remains have been overwhelmed by the morass.

Summary from record MDV25163:
Extensive streamwork visible, with spoilheaps, visible on aerial images on both banks of Ruddycleave Water. The streamwork extends off map at SX 7362 7500 (8 hectares area).

Location

Protected Status

• SHINE: Earthwork remains of a Bronze Age parallel reave system on Buckland Common and Blackslade Down, including prehistoric settlements and cairns, as well as medieval and later remains
• SHINE: Remains of a Bronze Age reave system fossilised in the fields west of Ruddycleave; part of a wider system that preserves potential links to nearby prehistoric reave systems

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: MDV25163
• Old DCC SMR Ref: MDV66229
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX77NW/243
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX77SW/144
• SHINE Candidate (Yes)

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• STREAMWORK (Early Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD (Between) to 1750 AD (Between))

Full description

Royal Air Force, 1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1890, 1318 (Aerial Photograph). SDV169268.

Royal Air Force, 1946 - 1949, Royal Air Force Aerial Photographs (Aerial Photograph). SDV342938.

Southern part of the streamworks visible on the aerial photograph.

Royal Air Force, 1947, RAF/CPE/UK/2149, 4410 (Aerial Photograph). SDV282746.

National Monuments Record, 1979, NMR SF1459, 75 (Aerial Photograph). SDV291903.

Belsey, P. M., 1983 - 1987, Buckland In The Moor Parish Checklist worksheets (Worksheet). SDV345904.

(06/09/1982) From SX 7362 7518 to SX 7310 7403 there is extensive stream workings along Blackslade Water (alias Ruddycleave Water) from the Widecombe / Buckland boundary at Blackslade Ford as far as the driftway to Ruddycleave Farm where they peter out. There are also extensive workings parallel to the track to Tunhill east to the main road.

Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, 1985, Aerial Photograph Project (Dartmoor) - Dartmoor Pre-NMP (Cartographic). SDV319854.

SX 7306 7395 Extensive streamwork visible on the 1940s aerial photographs, with spoilheaps, on both banks of Ruddycleave Water. The streamwork extends off map at SX 7362 7500 (8 hectares area).
Streamwork and spoil heaps visible on the aerial photographs at SX 7363 7513.

Brown, M., 1996, A guide to the Parish of Buckland-in-the-Moor, 9 (Monograph). SDV361770.

Banks of the stream are marked with low spoil heaps of stones and scarred with shallow furrows; the remains of medieval tin working. May be the site of the Whitta Pitte workings named by Ralph Woodleigh Lord of the Manor, in his will dated 1593.

Bruce, B. + Belsey, P. + Sykes, E., 1996, Survey of Tin Streamworks in the Ruddycleave Valley, 2-7 (Article in Serial). SDV312589.

Bruce, B. + Belsey, P. + Sykes, E., 1999, Survey of Tin Streamworks in the Ruddycleave Valley. Second Interim Report, 10-11, Figure plan of survey (Article in Serial). SDV361829.

A survey of the streamwork was undertaken by Dartmoor Tinworking Research Group members from 1993-6 c.500m downstream from Ruddycleave road bridge at SX 735-746-. The Ruddycleave workings extending for 0.7km were alluvial streamworks and may be of Medieval date and associated with the possible crazing mill (SX77SW/314).
Survey work began in 1993 and has continued intermittently since (up to March 1999). See First Interim Report (DTRG newsletter 11, 2-3 and 6-7, July 1996) for detail. Work commenced at the Ruddycleave Bridge and worked downstream to the lower end of the workings below Ruddycleave Farm. Work to survey the streamworks north of Ruddycleave Bridge began in March 1999.

Bruce, B., 2003, Ruddycleave: Blackslade Water Survey, 15 (Article in Serial). SDV293267.

A survey of the 1.5 kilometre streamwork was completed by Dartmoor Tinworking Research Group members in 2002 and reached Blackslade Mire at SX737-754-.

GeoInformation Group Ltd, 2010, 1:625 2010 Colour aerial photography for Dartmoor (12.5cm resolution) (Aerial Photograph). SDV346026.

Newman, P., 2015, Rippon Tor Premier Archaeological Landscape, Dartmoor National Park, Devon, 54, fig 18 (Report - Survey). SDV359145.

Tin streamworks along Ruddycleave Water. Tin streamworks extending from a short distance above Blackslade Ford to Ruddycleave. 4 hectares of tin streamworks extend south along Blackslade Water from the lower end of the mire. It is likely that they once extended further north though the remains have been overwhelmed by the morass.

Richards, A. F., 2016, MDV66229 deleted - same as MDV26951 (Personal Comment). SDV359390.

Record MDV66229 referred to part of the same streamwork - record deleted.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV6836 - Rippon Tor Premier Archaeological Landscape survey
• EDV7621 - Survey of the Ruddycleave Streamworks
• EDV8953 - Buckland in the Moor parish checklist site visits

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.