See important guidance on the use of this record.

If you have any comments or new information about this record, please email us.

Summary

Course of railway serving the Rattlebrook peatworks, opened in 1879 and closed in the 1930s. The Rattlebrook Peat Railway. This standard gauge railway was built in 1879 to bring peat down from Rattlebrook Head to Bridestowe. Owned by the West of England Compressed Peat Company, it survived until 1931. The line was dismantled but the trackway, used until the 1950s by lorries to bring the peat down, can be followed.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: LINEAR 1945
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 925717
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX58NE/7

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• TRAMWAY (Constructed, XIX to World War II - 1879 AD (Between) to 1939 AD (Between))
• TRACKWAY (Early 20th Century to Mid 20th Century - 1930 AD (Between) to 1950 AD (Between))

Full description

Copeland, G. W., 1952, Twenty-First Annual Report of the Plymouth and District Branch, 329 (Article in Serial). SDV237178.

Ordnance Survey, 1953-1969, 1953-1969 National Grid OS A edition imperial, 10,560 scale (1965) (Cartographic). SDV352727.

SX 52338730 to SX 55958710. 'Disused Railway' marked on map.

Minchinton, W., 1973, Industrial Archaeology in Devon, 27 (Monograph). SDV362710.

The Rattlebrook Peat Railway. This standard gauge railway was built in 1879 to bring peat down from Rattlebrook Head to Bridestowe. Owned by the West of England Compressed Peat Company, it survived until 1931. The line was dismantled but the trackway, used until the 1950s by lorries to bring the peat down, can be followed.

Harris, H., 1986, Industrial Archaeology of Dartmoor (Revised Edition), 110-114 (Monograph). SDV295019.

In 1879 the railway, of standard 4 feet 8.5 inch guage, was completed to connect the Rattlebrook Peatworks (SX 58 NE 43) with the London and South Western Railway, at a cost of £6000. The 5-mile line followed a steep and tortuous route from Bridestowe station to the peatworks, for that distance it had to ascend nearly 1000 feet, from 800 to 1750 feet above sea level. The rails...were removed in the 1930's.

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

(18/08/1994) Much of the former course of the Rattlebrook Railway is now used for military vehicular access to the Okehampton Military Range.

Butler, J., 1991, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Two - The North, 222, map 43, Site '16' (Monograph). SDV219155.

Rattle Brook peatworks tramway for transporting the peat across the moor to the mainline station at Bridestowe was completed in 1879. At first horses were used to haul the trucks up the incline to the turf ties but by the first world war the petrol engine had taken over. The five kilometre moorland course of the tramway is now a levelled track which is easy to follow along the flank of Great Nodden to Corn Ridge and then south-eastwards around Woodcock Hill to the workings at Rattlebrook Head. The rails and sleepers had been taken up by 1987 but the bridges are still intact.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8409 - Dartmoor Royal Forest Project
• EDV8423 - Duchy Farms Project
• EDV8813 - Archaeological and historical investigation of Peat Cutting on North-Western Dartmoor

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.