See important guidance on the use of this record.

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

Summary

Identified as a possible smelting house by Hemery, survey undertaken by Newman in 2008 disputes this.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX56NE/210/1

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• SMELTING HOUSE? (Early Medieval to XXI - 1066 AD to 2009 AD)

Full description

NMR, CITING HEMERY, Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV260305.

Smelting house sited from os 6" 1982 and hemery. The ruins of the bal mine smelting house stand beside the junction of middlemarch lane with the burreton reservoir perimeter road. The smelting-house measures 45'6" by 45'6" internally, only the rear wall still standing. A flue, 2'6" square internally, open above the furnace, and is subterranean for part of its length behind the house. A wheelpit, fed by water taken by a leat from the left bank of newleycombe lake, is 22' long by 5'9" wide. The partly removed tail-race returned water to the stream a little above the present bridge (nmr, citing hemery).

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV260307.

Nmr=sx56ne206.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV260309.

Des=greeves, t. /dartmoor magazine/49(winter 1997)6-8/tin stamping mills of dartmoor after ad 1750. Evidence of a stamping mill c.1800 at bal mine (greeves).

Hemery, E., 1983, High Dartmoor, 146 (Monograph). SDV249702.

The ruins of the Bal Mine smelting house stand beside the junction of Middlemarch Lane with the Burrator Reservoir perimeter road.
The smelting-house measures 45 feet 6 inches by 45 feet 6 inches internally, only the rear wall still standing. A flue, 2 feet 6 inches square internally, open above the furnace, and is subterranean for part of its length behind the house. A wheelpit, fed by water taken by a leat from the left bank of Newleycombe Lake, is 22 feet long by 5 feet 9 inches wide. The partly removed tail-race returned water to the stream a little above the present bridge.

Historic England, 2021-2022, NRHE to HER website, Accessed 27/08/2021 (Website). SDV364039.

(10/04/2008) South-west of the wheelpit, on the opposite side of the modern road near the adit is a possible in-situ mellior stone, comprising a flat, granite stone set into the ground with a vertical hole of approximately 60mm diameter on the upper face. There is no real evidence of a whim plat surrounding the stone, nor is there a shaft nearby. However, it is possible that both once existed nearby but were effaced by the alterations to this locality when the reservoir perimeter road and car park were constructed. The interpretation of the site as a smelting house by Hemery is incorrect. Newman P 10-APR-2008 EH Archaeological Field Investigation

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8113 - Survey of Bal Mine
• EDV8863 - Survey of archaeological sites on SWLT land in the Burrator catchment

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