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Summary

Dressing Floor at the Stamping Mill number 7 forming part of the 19th century Wheal Katherine Tin Mine

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1021056: Wheal Katherine, 235m west of Plym Ford, forming an outlying part of Eylesbarrow Tin Mine
• SHINE: Earthwork remains of tin streaming and trial pits at Wheal Katherine Mine

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX66NW/216/37
• Old SAM Ref: 34468
• SHINE Candidate (Yes)

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• DRESSING FLOOR (XVIII to XIX - 1750 AD to 1900 AD (Between))

Full description

Ordnance Survey, 1880-1899, First Edition Ordnance 25 inch map (Cartographic). SDV336179.

Features shown on 19th century map.

Gerrard, S., 1990-2002, Monument Protection Programme. Archaeological Item Dataset., MPP 157298 (Report - Survey). SDV277946.

Site visited on 15th May 2002. Dressing floor 350 metres west-south-west of Plym Ford, forming part of Wheal Katherine Tin Mine. A range of well preserved structures denoted by revetment or walling on three sides. The revetment stands up to 1.25 metres high. Leats, buddles and dumps are all clearly visible, with many of the buddles being stone faced. The buddles are up to 0.7 metres deep. Three small recesses in the revetment wall probably represent the site of jagging boards used together with the adjacent buddles. Grass, heather and rushes. There are however patches of severe erosion in places.

Newman , P., 1999, Eylesbarrow (Ailsborough) Tin Mine, 28-29, Figures 4, 14 and 15 (Report - Survey). SDV352201.

Each Stamping Mill at Eylesbarrow Tin Mine has an associated dressing floor. The stamping area at each mill is immediately adjacent to the wheel. The crushed particles would have passed into a stone lined settling pit sited on the dressing floor. These are 2.8 – 3.3 metres long by approximately 1 metre wide and are lined with flat granite slabs. On some dressing floors additional pits or ‘buddles’ sit alongside the settling pit which may have been lined with timber instead of granite. Below the main dressing floors are a range of secondary buddles and tailings pits for further refining. At Stamping Mill number 7 at Wheal Katherine Tin Mine the dressing floor is mainly to the south of the wheel pit with two reck houses to the south and south-east.

Newman, P., 1999, Eylesbarrow (Ailsborough) Tin Mine, Figure 14 (Article in Serial). SDV231130.

English Heritage, 2005, Industrial Survey Information (Report - Survey). SDV346396.

Outline shown on survey.

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

Features visible on aerial photograph.

English Heritage, 2014, National Heritage List for England, 1021056 (National Heritage List for England). SDV355683.

Wheal Katherine includes structures and earthworks associated with Wheal Katherine situated on the lower south facing slopes of Eylesbarrow overlooking the River Plym. The final form of mining is represented by five particularly large pits called shafts and an adit. These would have been dug to reach the tin ore below the depth accessible by openworks and lode back pits. These features probably belong to the 19th century extraction phase. Ore extracted from these shafts and adits would have been processed in the stamping mill and associated dressing floors. The stamping machinery would have sat next to the large stone faced wheelpit and the dressing floor survives as a series of linear and rectangular hollows in the area south of the stamps. Two reck houses in which the tin was further refined survive towards the southern edge of the dressing floor. The final product from this processing area would have been black tin which would have then been transported elsewhere for smelting.

National Monument Record, 2014, Pastscape, 1063881 (Website). SDV355682.

Remains of a tin processing works at Wheal Katherine which formed part of Eylesbarrow tin mine set and was operational until 1856. An archaeological field survey in 1994 located structures including a stamping mill, dressing floors and buddles.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV6239 - Eylesbarrow (Ailsborough) Tin Mine

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