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Summary

Bowcombe Quarry is depicted as two pits on the Tithe Map for Ugborough, one immediately north-east of Quarry Farm and a smaller pit to the south-east. The First Edition 25inch Ordnance Survey map depicts the quarry as disused. The pit is largely overgrown on aerial photographs of 1946 but clearly defined on visualisations derived from lidar data captured in 2019.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX65NE/186

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• QUARRY (XVIII - 1701 AD to 1800 AD (Between))

Full description

South West Heritage Trust, 1838-1848, Digitised Tithe Maps and Transcribed Apportionments (Cartographic). SDV359954.

The quarry is depicted as an oval earthwork listed as Plot 500, Slate Quarry.

de la Beche, H. T., 1839, Report on the Geology of Cornwall, Devon and West Somerset, 503 (Monograph). SDV337075.

slate quarry. Source of roofing slate.

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

Site of a large irregular shaped quarry shown on 19th century map to the east of Quarry Farm.

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

The quarry is depicted as earthwork as party of Bowcombe Quarry (Disused).

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

Ussher, W. A. E., 1912, Geology of the Country around Ivybridge and Modbury (Monograph). SDV161599.

Quarry farm and disused quarries. There are two quarry areas east of the farmhouse. At one time they must have been very productive. One quarry is near the road which leads north to Toby Cross and the ridge-way. This is in a field known as Dixon's Field, and has been almost completely filled in. Dixon came from Caernarvonshire in the 1830s and worked the quarry for roofing slate. The other large quarry, 100 yards to the north, has a greater area of worked slate still exposed. In the early 20th century when the owner was working in a cowhouse near the farmhouse the floor gave way and revealed a shaft of some sort beneath the building. Also near the farm buildings, there is an exposed area dug into the rock, about 12 feet square, which is believed to be the start of a tunnel or shaft. To the right, some way away, there are the filled-in and covered over remains of a shaft, with the rock face of the quarry rising on three sides for some 25 feet. The purpose of this shaft is unknown, and as of 1974 [sic], no remains of buildings could be seen. South of the farmhouse, below the driveway, there is the opening of a tunnel, whose purpose is unknown. The present access was made by the owner when it threatened the road above with collapse and does not appear to be the original entry. The tunnel is 1.82 metres high by 1.82 metres wide, and is level, with water standing over its entire length. Drill marks indicate that the tunnel was worked away from the house; the length accessible being 26.62 metres. To the left of the present entrance the passage is blocked up. At the inner end of the tunnel the cut rises abruptly at about 45deg. And is filled with shale. This could be an accidental roof fall, or a return passage to the open ground. No sign of a shaft exists on the ground. Compass readings show that the tunnel, as exposed below ground, runs in a direction from below the house to the corner of a vegetable plot where the quarry track joins the farm track. If it continued in the same straight line, the other end of the tunnel (at 45deg. Incline) would come out at the junction of the farm track and the garden path leading to meadows.

Royal Air Force, 1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1890, Devon County Council RAF/CPE/UK/1890 FS 2191-2192 10-DEC-1946 (Aerial Photograph). SDV169268.

An overgrown pit is visible as an earthwork.

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, 22 (Report - Assessment). SDV340215.

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

Environment Agency, 2019, National Lidar Programme, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM 25-FEB-2019LIDAR Environment Agency DTM 25-FEB-2019 (Cartographic). SDV363691.

The pit is infilled and its former extent is visible only as a disturbed ground surface.

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.

Bowcombe Quarry is depicted as two pits on the Tithe Map for Ugborough, one immediately north-east of Quarry Farm and a second smaller pit to the south-east of the farmhouse. The First Edition 25inch Ordnance Survey map labels the quarry as disused. This might support the interpretation that the quarry ceased to be used between circa 1840 and 1880.
The pit is south-east of Quarry Farm is overgrown on aerial photographs of 1946. It is not identifiable as a pit on visualisations derived from lidar data captured in 2019, its former extent is visible only as a disturbed ground surface.
The larger pit to the north-east, also part of Bowcombe Quarry, is recorded separately as MDV5052.

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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