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Summary

Early 20th century wheelpit with buddles associated with Golden Dagger Tin Mine in the Redwater Valley

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1021393: Medieval strip field system, tinworks, part of a prehistoric settlement, a cairn and reave on Challacombe Down

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX67NE96
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 915206

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• WHEEL PIT (Constructed, Early 20th Century - 1920 AD (Between) to 1927 AD (Between))

Full description

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

(15/06/1990) SX 6877 7912. Rectangular stone wheelpit of rough-coursed, mortared granite stones and boulders built crudely on the outside but more carefully lined inside. It is built partly above ground on a slight slope, its masonry 0.2 metres high uphill and 0.75 metres downhill. Internally the pit is 3.15 metres long, 0.15 metres wide and at least 1.2 metres deep. Decaying, dismantled iron fittings, probably from the wheel and buddles, have been thrown into the pit. The long side top surfaces have opposed concrete impressions each with two bolt fixings to secure the wheel axle and bearings.
The wheel was attached by rods and simple gearing to a central cone or "spreader" from which radiated horizontal brushes across the buddle floor. The wheel's motion was transferred to rotate the cone and brushes which graded the tin slurry after it was poured over the cone via a wooden launder. When the water had run off the tin concentrate could be dug out from the buddle floor.
Leats supplying both buddles and wheel survive just outside to both east and west (see related records).

Agricultural Development Advisory Service, 1991, Challacombe Farm Postbridge, Devon (Duchy Farms Project), 29, Map D1 (Report - Assessment). SDV356546.

Tin treatment plant comprising a rectangular wheelpit and several buddles.

Butler, J., 1991, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Two - The North, 21-22, Map 24 (Monograph). SDV219155.

Site '5' at Golden Dagger Tin Mine includes a concreted structure for a wheel pit for a wheel only about 3 metres in diameter which was fed by a wooden launder from a leat re-using one of the medieval field banks uphill.

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

Depicted on the survey data.

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

Wheelpit visible on aerial photograph.

Welch, B. + Welch, T., 2014, The Redwater wheel pit and buddles (Plan - measured). SDV356560.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV6476 - Survey of the Redwater wheel pit and buddles
• EDV8658 - Challacombe, Duchy Farms Survey
• EDV8423 - Duchy Farms Project

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