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Summary

This is the best preserved of the two buildings (the other on the opposite bank of the river), with walls up to 2.2m high and door lintel remaining in situ. A wheelpit lies adjacent to outer wall of east room. Leading from the lower end is a small underground channel which emerges on the other side of the wall.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1020129: Tinworks and other archaeological remains in the Meavy valley at Stanlake, Black Tor, Hart Tor and Cramber Tor

Other References/Statuses

• National Buildings Record: 110825
• National Buildings Record: NRI01
• National Monuments Record: SX57SE33
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 440121
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX57SE/125
• Old SAM County Ref: 1003
• Old SAM Ref: 24106

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• BLOWING HOUSE (Built, XVII - 1654 AD (Between) to 1654 AD (Between))
• STAMPING MILL (Built, XVII - 1654 AD (Between) to 1654 AD (Between))
• TIN MILL (Built, XVII - 1654 AD (Between) to 1654 AD (Between))
• WATERMILL (Built, XVII - 1654 AD (Between) to 1654 AD (Between))
• WHEEL PIT (Built, XVII - 1654 AD (Between) to 1654 AD (Between))

Full description

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV252674.

Woodhouse, h. B. S. /tda/33(1901)114-115.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV252678.

Devon cttee rescue arch/5().

AM, Untitled Source (Report - Survey). SDV252652.

Vis=-/1/1977 (ancient monuments) several mortarstones lie in the building. Probably 17th century (probably refers to r bank mill) (am).

Burnard, R., 1887, Recent Dredging in Cattewater, 401 (Article in Serial). SDV252670.

Burnard, R., 1888 - 1889, On the Track of the 'Old Men', Dartmoor, 106-107 (Article in Serial). SDV154694.

Crossing, W., 1890 - 1891, Western Antiquary, 179 (Monograph). SDV154702.

Falcon, T. A., 1902-1903, Dartmoor Mining, 226-227 pl.1 (Article in Serial). SDV154698.

Stamping mill at Black Tor Falls, left bank. The ruins of a building.(across the stream there is another ruin). It has a recess in the west-north-west corner. Wall about 2.0m at the highest with a well preserved doorway to south-south-west. In the east-north-east corner a small raised platform or stand juts out in quarter circle.

Ordnance Survey, 1904 - 1906, Second Edition Ordnance Survey 25 inch Map, (1906)106SE (Cartographic). SDV325644.

'Blowing houses (remains of)' marked on 1906 map.

Crossing, W., 1912 (1965), Crossing's Guide to Dartmoor, 101 (Monograph). SDV320981.

Worth, R. H., 1933, Blowing Houses in the Valleys of the Sheepstor Brook, the Meavy, the Erme and the Avon, 313-6, fig.17, pl.31, fig.18 (Article in Serial). SDV235818.

The remains of two blowing houses at Black Tor Falls; one on either bank of the River Meavy. Both have recognisable furnaces (plans) and short traceable leats. The one on the right bank has an identifiable wheel pit, and the one on the left bank has a supposed wheel pit in an annexe to the main building.
A lease of tin bounds, dated 1654, mentions a tin works known as Blacktor.

Worth, R. H., 1940, The Dartmoor Blowing House, 225 (Article in Serial). SDV154693.

Black Tor Falls, left bank. The ruins of the blowing house are unusually well preserved; the main door with its lintel, and a portion of the wall above it are preserved. The lintel bears the inscription "XIII", in letters from 57-64mm high, obviously roman numerals. This may have some connection with the registration of the blowing houses. There is a second compartment built onto the house, and some of the stone used is unusually large and well dressed. It has been supposed to have contained a wheel-pit, but this is doubtful. The leat is still traceable. No mould or mortar stones have been found.

Worth, R. H., 1946, Dartmoor Blowing Houses, a supplement, 281-4, pl.30 fig.1-2 (Article in Serial). SDV249939.

On the left bank of the Meavy, the stone bearing of the water-wheel was found lying on the top of the wall of the wheel-pit. It is of quartz schorl rock, of irregular outline. Plate.

Council for British Archaeology, 1963-1985, National Record of Industrial Monuments (NRIM): Index Cards, DV17 (Un-published). SDV364291.

Recorded by NRIM (undated). M. Park.

Ordnance Survey, 1963-1996, 1963-1996 National Grid OS Metric, (1963) (Cartographic). SDV350058.

(SX 57487163) Blowing Houses (NR) (remains of) (NAT).

Anon, 1965, Dartmoor Damage, 6 (Article in Serial). SDV249948.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1977, SX57SE33 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV249940.

(20/06/1977) The remains of the blowing house on the north (left) bank are more substantial; the doorway, complete with door jambs and lintel, remains intact in the south wall.
The sites of the furnace and wheel pit are visible, and part of the course of the leat can be traced. One mortar stone is visible. The internal dimensions are 5.1m x 4.5m, and the height of the walls from 1.3m to 2.0m.
Surveyed at 1:10 000 on PFD.

Greeves, T. A. P., 1981, List of Known Devon Tin Mills c1450 - c1750, No.8 (Report - non-specific). SDV319826.

Stamping mill. No documentary date. Field evidence.

Greeves, T. A. P., 1981, Medieval Industry (Article in Serial). SDV275197.

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

Not visible on RAF 1946 photos.

Newman, P., 1987, The Moorland Meavy - a Tinner's Landscape, 228, fig 2. (Article in Serial). SDV231207.

Department of Environment, 1989, Scheduled Monument Consent letter (Correspondence). SDV326214.

(04/09/1989)Consent granted for consolidation of masonry.

Greeves, T. A. P., 1990, An Assessment of Dartmoor Tinworking, 41 (Report - Assessment). SDV343684.

Gerrard, S., 1990-2002, Monument Protection Programme. Archaeological Item Dataset. (Report - Survey). SDV277946.

(01/10/1996) At SX 5748 7162. Southern stamping mill at Black Tor Falls.

Cranstone, D. + Hedley, I., 1995, Monuments Protection Programme: The Tin Industry Step 3 Site Assessments, Devon 15 (Report - non-specific). SDV357946.

While both structures contain features which may be interpreted as 'furnace-like', there is no evidence of any smelting activity, other than crushing and stamping. However, as examples of stamping mills they have exceptional archaeological potential.

Gerrard, S., 1997, Black Tor Falls Tin Mills (Meavy Valley Archaeology Site Report 3), 7; fig 2 (Report - Survey). SDV360976.

(October 1996) Black Tor Falls medieval tin mills were originally built to house the tin crushing machinery. Several mortar stones survive as do a number of specially prepared stones on which the water wheel axle rotated. There are two separate crushing mills one on each side of the River Meavy, a dressing floor to the south-west and a raised platform to the east. Gerrard's 1997 report comprises a full site account and a large-scale survey of each feature:
Detailed plane-table survey of the two tin mills and adjacent streamwork earthworks. This is the best preserved of the two buildings, with walls up to 2.2m high and door lintel remaining in situ.
Wheelpit lies adjacent to outer wall of east room. Leading from the lower end is a small underground channel which emerges on the other side of the wall.
Absence of mortar stones from left bank mill is probably significant and suggests a different developmental history to the right bank mill.
Building cuts into earlier streamworking. Two rooms, the eastern more recent. Western room is 2.5m by 4.6m internally, defined by a 1m wide substantial drystone wall up to 1.5m high. A 1.4m square recess in the south-west corner represents a fireplace. Another possible fireplace survives in north-east corner, although this one was added at a later date. Well-preserved doorway into western room is 1.35m high by 0.96m wide internally (1.58m externally). The eastern door jamb has a 0.09m high, 0.03m wide, 0.04m deep slot in its south-facing side on which a door would have been hung. The door would have opened outwards. To west of door and built into southern wall is a small cupboard, 0.66m wide at front, tapering to 0.4m at back, 0.22m high, 0.68m deep. In the centre of the room is a mortarstone with two hollows. This is known to have originally lain within the right bank mill, and so cannot be used to suggest a function for this building. Identification as a mill relies on a wheelpit, an associated underground tailrace and at least two axle bearing stones. However, the wheelpit is associated with the later, eastern room. This room is 4m by 3m and defined by a drystone wall together with some huge granite boulders. The relationship of the wheelpit to the mill building suggests that the stamping machinery would have been housed in the eastern room. The whole structure may be a tinners' shelter to which a stamping mill was later added, although a stone lined channel apparently leading under the west wall of the structure belongs more comfortably with a stamping mill than a tinners' shelter. The number XIII carved above the doorway has been seen as a form of registration of blowing mills.
On balance until further work reveals more information to the contrary it seems most likely that a small stamping mill was constructed upon an earlier streamwork. After some time a new room was added and the stamping machinery moved. A new wheelpit was built and the earlier one backfilled, and the original room converted into a multifunctional shelter.

Bodman, M., 1998, Water-Powered Sites in Devon, 23, 38 (Report - non-specific). SDV305931.

Fletcher, M. J., 2007-2008, Walkhampton Premier Archaeological Landscape; Field Investigation Project, M. J. Fletcher (Report - Survey). SDV359195.

(16/10/2007) The two roofless thick-walled buildings lie within the streamworks; various mortar stones are visible around the structures Neither building is overgrown with vegetation. Surveyed at 1:2500 scale.

Bluesky International Ltd/Getmapping PLC, 2015-2017, 2015-2017 Aerial Photographs (Aerial Photograph). SDV361462.

Majority of the building clearly visible on the aerial photograph, although the western end is less obvious.

Various, 2018-2020, PALs Condition Recording forms, WLK-95 (Worksheet). SDV362781.

Visited 01/12/2019. Overall condition good. Photo taken.

Various, 2018-2020, PALs Condition Recording photographs, WLK-95 (Photograph). SDV363073.

Photo looking 260° showing grass/moss and reeds with small ferns on inside of S wall.

Historic England, 2021-2022, NRHE to HER website, Accessed 23/06/2022 (Website). SDV364039.

SX 57487162, Black Tor Falls right bank and SX 57497161, Black Tor Falls left bank listed as "definite tin mills with visible structures which date to before 1700..." (CBA research Report, Council for British Archaeology, Vol 40, 1981, pg. 94).
A comprehensive account and survey of these two tin mills is provided by Newman (Dartmoor Magazine 1990 and 1991 On hundred years at Black Tor Falls 21 12 - 13 and 22 22-23. P Newman).

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV7517 - Survey of Hart Tor tin works
• EDV7520 - Survey of Black Tor Falls Tin Mills
• EDV8351 - Walkhampton Premier Archaeological Landscape; Field Investigation Project

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