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Summary

Ten hectares of tinworks, including openworks, streamwork, shafts and trial pits, on the broad south-facing bullnose of ground formed by the confluence of the River Erme and Blacklane Brook, known as Erme Pits Hill. The escarped edges of the streamworks that follow the course of those two water courses, mark the south-west and south-east limits of these quite separate workings.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX66NW113
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 1063729
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX66NW/104

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• EXTRACTIVE PIT (Constructed, Early Medieval to Early 20th Century - 1066 AD (Between) to 1901 AD (Between))
• PROSPECTING PIT (Constructed, Early Medieval to Early 20th Century - 1066 AD (Between) to 1901 AD (Between))
• STREAMWORKS (Constructed, Early Medieval to Early 20th Century - 1066 AD (Between) to 1901 AD (Between))

Full description

Royal Air Force, 1946, CPE/UK 1890, 4278 (Aerial Photograph). SDV140289.

Photograph taken on 10th December 1946.

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

Massive area of scattered trial pits, apparently without any rigid formation or distribution except for three rows of pits, aligned roughly south-west to north-east between the following points: 1) SX62496702 to SX62826714, 2) SX62656690 to SX62886714 and 3) SX62726689 to SX62906760.

Royal Commission for the Historical Monuments of England, 1993-1998, Dartmoor Royal Forest Project, S. Probert (Report - Survey). SDV346608.

(10/12/1994) Centred SX 62746694. Approximately 5.0ha of tinworking remains on the W, S and E flanks of Erme Pits Hill. The remains comprise a large, well-defined openwork oriented SW to NE ascending the hill from the tinners cliff marking the edge of streamworking on the River Erme (SX 66 NW 72) and several lines and clusters of tin pits on roughly the same alignment. The steep S flank of the hill is occupied by an eluvial working.
The openwork, 20m wide and 4.5m deep at its SW end, runs for 250m before petering out into a mass of tin pits above the right bank of Wollake. Its general alignment is continued by a similar though less well-developed feature on the opposite bank of the stream. This latter feature was formerly supplied with water via two leats (SX 66 NW 105 and 115) and that on Erme Pits Hill obtained water from a leat (SX 66 NW 102) formerly rising on the Blacklane Brook some 500m to the N.
The tin pits, apparently exploiting the SW to NE lodes of this area, vary in size from 2.5m to 8.0m in diameter. They are accompanied by several small opencast workings usually around 2.0m deep.
Apart from the fact that they lie on a steep hillside, the eluvial workings with their linear spoil heaps separated by parallel water channels are similar in form to the streamworks in the valley bottoms.

Newman, P., 2018, Erme Valley Survey data (GIS and Excel spreadsheet) (Cartographic). SDV361913.

Large area of activity ahown on survey.

Newman, P., 2018, The Upper Erme Valley, Dartmoor National Park, Devon: An Archaeological Survey, Appendix 1, Figure 35 (Report - Survey). SDV362921.

Ten hectares of tinworks, including openworks, streamwork, shafts and trial pits, on the broad south-facing bullnose of ground formed by the confluence of the River Erme and Blacklane Brook, known as Erme Pits Hill. The escarped edges of the streamworks that follow the course of those two water courses, mark the south-west and south-east limits of these quite separate workings. A substantial 230 metres long openwork transects this area west-south-west to east-north-east and represents the working of a continuation of the Erme Pits lode (see MDV24812). The openwork is up to 20 metres wide and on average 3 metres deep. A series of smaller gullies beyond the eastern end of the openwork and to the north-west represent lesser attempts at exploiting this and other lodes and/or water diversion channels. Immediately south of the openwork 1.2 hectares of dry streamworks, with shallow scarps marking the edge of the working area, extends south down the slope to the confluence. The interior of the working contains linear trenches and banks of waste stone, all aligned north to south. Some of the banks have well-built stone revetments along their length and are among the finest examples of this type to be found within Dartmoor National Park. The openwork and the streamworks were probably supplied by water conveyed to the site via a leat (MDV72977) from Blacklane Brook, stored in a curvilinear earthwork reservoir at SX6280 6690. This comprises a 4.5 metre wide cut in the slope with an embanked lower edge and a sluice opening on the western end. The entire area is pock marked by over 420 tin trial pits and small shafts, but a particularly large linear cluster of 4.5 hectares extends for 525 metres south-west to north -east. The trial pits are on average between 3 metres and 5 metres diameter with a depth between 1 metre and 2 metres. Some of the larger pits with more substantial spoil heaps, such as the 120 metres east to west alignment centred at SX 6256 6698, are more likely to be shallow shafts and represent evidence of limited tin extraction.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8082 - Survey of the Upper Erme Valley
• EDV8409 - Dartmoor Royal Forest Project

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