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Summary

Weir at the head of the mill race, a short stretch of leat, to the waterwheel at Shinner Bridge Mill, a textile mill built 1930-1.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses: none recorded

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• WEIR (Built, XX - 1930 AD to 1931 AD (Between))

Full description

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

Neither the weir, leat or mill are shown.

Ordnance Survey, 1930 - 1939, Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey 25 inch Map (Cartographic). SDV336668.

Weir marked. The watercourse is named as the Bidwell Brook.

Passmore, A., 2004, Dartington Weir, 5005_40-41 (Ground Photograph). SDV357288.

Slides showing view upstream from left bank and leat.

Exeter Archaeology, 2005, An Archaeological Survey of Weirs in the River Dart Catchment. Draft Report, 7, Appendix 1: Ex. Arch. No. 23 (Report - Survey). SDV356906.

Dartington Weir. Ex. Arch. No. 23. Environment Agency No. 2. Watercourse: River Dart.
Historic function: served a grist/corn mill and textile mill.
The leat is still functional and powers a waterwheel which turns for visual purposes only.
A small weir at a right angle to the river with the leat on the left bank. It is constructed of concrete with a metal sluice. The head of the leat is a concrete channel, with the water passing through a sluice into the leat, which is constructed of semicircular concrete pipes. Below the main sluice there are two concrete steps aligned at an angle across the river at the base of which is stone, possibly part of an earlier weir. It is unclear whether this was a structure of cut bedrock but its downstream face was aligned with the on the same orientation as the concrete steps, and a further step downstream.
The weir is in good working condition, with the leat supplying the waterwheel that still turns.
No management issues have been identified, although since a footpath and cycle path now pass adjacent to the weir, leat and mill, these features, along with the nearby limekilns, could form the basis of some industrial archaeological interpretation (or buildings interpretation with the wider Dartington landscape (the Cider Press Centre and almshouses).
[Note: the report quotes from an incorrect source on the HER which states that the mill was a 19th century grist mill used as a textile mill in the 20th century. In fact the mill was built in 1930-1. The watercourse is the Bidwell Brook, a tributary of the Dart).

Ordnance Survey, 2014, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV355681.

Weir marked.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV6538 - Archaeological Survey of Weirs in the River Dart Catchment

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