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Summary

Fillham Silverlead Mine with a surviving engine house and shaft was operating in the 19th century. Oval and irregularly shaped earthworks of pits and banks associated with this mine are visible on visualisations derived from lidar data captured between 1998 and 2017.

Location

Protected Status

• SHINE: Earthworks associated with the former 19th century Fillham Silverlead Mine
• Listed Building (II) 1107836: FILHAM MINE ENGINE HOUSE

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX65NW/12
• Old Listed Building Ref (II)

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• TIN WORKS? (Early Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD to 1750 AD (Between))
• MINE (XIX - 1801 AD to 1900 AD (Between))

Full description

Unknown, Ivybridge, 349 (Report - Survey). SDV340911.

Unknown, The Coombe Mine Site, Field Evidence, Chapter Six. (Part of Monument Protection Programme) (Report - Survey). SDV362932.

Fillham Engine House. Ruuined engine house of unusual fireproof construction (though including some wooden lintels), densely ivy-covered. Remainder oif site largely destroyed. Also known as Ivybridge Consols mine.

Advise to record befroe further deterioration.

Wood, 1850, Map of Dartmoor (Cartographic). SDV340908.

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

'Fillham Silverlead Mine (Disused)' shown on 19th century map to the southwest of Filham House.

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

A number of structures and earthworks are depicted in this area and are labelled as ’Fillham Silverlead Mine (disused)’ and ‘Shaft’.

Ordnance Survey, 1906, 125NE (Cartographic). SDV160600.

'Filham Silver Lead Mine (Disused)' shown on 1906 map.

H. M. Stationary Office, 1929, Abandoned Mines (Monograph). SDV215700.

Unknown, 1929, Mineral Resources: Lead (Report - non-specific). SDV340910.

Ramsden, J. V., 1952, Notes on the Mines of Devonshire, 94 (Article in Serial). SDV60737.

F6 Filham. Lead.

Geological Survey, 1956, Untitled Source, 740 (Monograph). SDV340906.

Ordnance Survey, 1966, SX65NW (Cartographic). SDV340901.

Mine shown on 1966 map.

Department of Environment, 1974, Ermington (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV340905.

Engine house, which lies in Ermington parish, is a ruinous rectangular rubble stone structure. Dated 1856.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 1974, Ermington (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV340909.

Filham Mine Engine House was formerly listed as Ivybridge Consoles Engine House. Ruins of the engine house at the disused Ivybridge Consoles silver-lead mine. A roofless rectangular building built in 1856 of stone rubble. The walls are covered in creeper and only partly stand to the full height. This was a former silver-lead working active from 1838 until 1857. It is one of the few surviving engine houses in Devon. Other details: LBS No 100323.

Hamilton Jenkin, Dr. A. K., 1974, Mines of Devon. Volume 1: The Southern Area, 137-9 (Monograph). SDV336694.

Fillham Silverlead Mine (Ivybridge Consols) was worked pre 1838-1857. The shaft and engine-house and other surface buildings were probably all in Ermington parish. All that now remains - the filled-in shaft and ruined engine house - are believed to be in Ermington. Billing's directory of 1857 includes the mine in Ugborough, and states that 60 hands were employed there. A water-wheel used in the earlier years of the workings and sold in 1845 was fed from a leat cut through the grounds of Filham House to the north of the mine. This is in Ugborough and the track of the leat can still be seen.

Turton, S. D. + Weddell, P. J., 1989, An Archaeological Assessment of the South Devon Spine Main (Roborough to Littlehempston), 9 (Report - Assessment). SDV138026.

19th century silver lead mine.

Richardson, P. H. G., 1992, The Mines of Dartmoor and the Tamar Valley after 1913, 139 (Article in Serial). SDV323598.

Cranstone, D., 1993, Untitled Source (Site Visit). SDV148686.

Main surviving feature of the mine is a ruined engine house understood from the literature to have been of unusual fireproof construction. It is densely ivy-covered, obscuring much structural detail. One and a half walls have collapsed and the remainder is deteriorating rapidly. Distinctive features of its fireproof construction were not visible, but may survive beneath the ivy. Since this construction was probably unique, there is a case for recording. There is a shaft site immediately north of the engine house. This is choked with rubbish and may well not be securely capped. Most of the rest of the mine site has been destroyed though there are some traces in the wood to the west of the engine house.

Nance, R. W. + Nance, R. D., 1996, A Survey of Engine Houses on the Mines of South Devon, 109-22 (Article in Serial). SDV241746.

Remains of the engine house stand in wooded corner of the field. No evidence of attached stack in what remains of the rear wall footings. Boiler house door in north wall and single arched window openings in the ground floor and middle chamber exist in the remains of the south wall.

Nance, R. D., 1996, Project Design for a Survey of Engine Houses on the Mines of South Devon (Report - Assessment). SDV222663.

Nance, R. W. + Nance, R. D., 1996, Wheal Druid and the Engine Houses of Dartmoor (Article in Serial). SDV340907.

Bodman, M., 1998, Water-Powered Sites in Devon, 12 (Report - non-specific). SDV305931.

Fillham Silver-Lead Mine. Other details: Site 16.

Environment Agency, 1998-2017, LiDAR DTM data (1m resolution) EA: South Devon Coast to Dartmoor, LIDAR SX6455 Environment Agency DTM 01-JAN-1998 to 31-MAY-2017 (Cartographic). SDV361470.

Oval and irregularly shaped pits and banks are visible as earthworks.

Cotswold Archaeology, 2001, Fishacre to Lyneham Natural Gas Pipeline: Archaeological Fieldwalking and Field Reconnaissance Survey: Preliminary Summary, Map 9 (Report - Survey). SDV340217.

Cotswold Archaeology, 2001, Fishacre to Lyneham Natural Gas Pipeline: Cultural Heritage Assessment: Volume 1:Text, 21 (Report - Assessment). SDV340215.

Other details: Site 135.

Cotswold Archaeology, 2001, Fishacre to Lyneham Natural Gas Pipeline: Cultural Heritage Assessment: Volume 2: Constraints Maps (Report - Assessment). SDV340216.

Other details: Map 9 Site 135.

Hegarty, C., Knight, S. and Sims, R., 2019-2020, The South Devon Coast to Dartmoor Aerial Investigation and Mapping Survey. Area 2, Avon Valley to Plymouth (AI&M, formerly NMP) (Interpretation). SDV362982.

Earthworks of pits and banks are visible on visualisations derived from lidar data captured between 1998 and 2017. The earthworks comprise a large irregularly shaped pit, circa 108m long by 40m wide, with two smaller oval pits, circa 9m long, and irregularly shaped mounds, up to 40m long, visible to the east, south and west of the larger pit. Numerous structures and earthworks are depicted in this location on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map which are labelled as ’Fillham Silverlead Mine (disused)’ and ‘Shaft’. The earthworks are therefore interpreted as evidence of 19th century workings associated with this mine. One of the banks at circa SX64675501 corresponds with a structure of an engine house (MDV91353) and is interpreted as a possible building platform for this structure, and one of the pits at circa SX64685502 possibly corresponds with the location of a shaft. Some caution should, however, be exercised as the earthworks also bear close similarity with earthworks of a medieval or post-medieval tin streamworks (MDV126213), recorded circa 70m to the southwest. It is also possible, therefore, that the earthworks in this location represent, in part, the redundant remains of tinworking, which was then given over to a silver lead mine in the 19th century.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV4375 - Fishacre to Lyneham Pipeline Assessment
• EDV4391 - Fishacre to Lyneham Fieldwalking Survey
• EDV8098 - The South Devon Coast to Dartmoor Aerial Investigation and Mapping (formerly NMP) Survey, Area 2, Avon Valley to Plymouth (Ref: ACD2040)

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