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Summary

Medieval or later tin mill with evidence for crushing and smelting tin ore at Glazemeet. Remains of rectangular building of 6 metres by 3.9 metres with walls 0.6 metres by up to 1.2 metres high on north side. Entrance gap on south side. Small cell by flue on north-west corner of 2.2 metres by 1.1 metres. Granite mouldstone on north wall and three mortarstones, one built into north wall and two inside the building. Wheel pit with tail race to Glaze Brook on north side of building. There is a mature beech tree possibly causing damage on the south-east corner of the building.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1002507: Glaze Meet blowing house (Tinner's Foundry)

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX66SE63
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 441960
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX66SE/28
• Old SAM County Ref: 396

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• BLOWING HOUSE (Constructed, Early Medieval to Early 20th Century - 1066 AD (Between) to 1901 AD (Between))
• LEAT (Constructed, Early Medieval to Early 20th Century - 1066 AD (Between) to 1901 AD (Between))
• STAMPING MILL (Constructed, Early Medieval to Early 20th Century - 1066 AD (Between) to 1901 AD (Between))
• WATERMILL (Constructed, Early Medieval to Early 20th Century - 1066 AD (Between) to 1901 AD (Between))
• WHEEL PIT (Constructed, Early Medieval to Early 20th Century - 1066 AD (Between) to 1901 AD (Between))

Full description

Spence Bate, C., 1872, Researches into some Antient Tumuli on Dartmoor, 531, 535 (Article in Serial). SDV336926.

Crossing, W., 1912 (1965), Crossing's Guide to Dartmoor, 390 (Monograph). SDV320981.

Worth, R. H., 1932, Blowing houses in the valley of the Sheepstor Brook and the Glazebrook, 275-8, Plate 10, Figures 8-10 (Article in Serial). SDV266553.

Blowing mill/stamping mill at Glazebrook near Glazemeet. Set amongst trees, the best preserved wall facing upstream against which the wheelpit can be seen. This wall has a break in its length of fairly recent destruction. 0.9 metres from the end of the wall, at the lower end, there is a stone 0.6 metres in height by 0.35metres across which projects some 0.6 metres into the house and has two slots cut in its top surface opposite each other. At the higher end of the wall, in the corner, there is a channel leading into the bank against which the house is built. This channel appears to be the flue for the furnace and it is carried up to a small ruin which stands above the blowing house. Higher side of the house is built against a bank. In the angle of the long wall and the lower side wall, near the slotted stone, there is a thin flat stone projecting 0.46 metres into the house at an angle. This may not be part of the original building. Within the blowing house there is a mortar-stone approximately 0.6 metres by 0.4 metres with two mortars approximately 0.18 metres by 0.15 metres by 0.76 metres deep, on the uppermost side as the stone now rests. Just outside of the house at the lower end there is a damaged or incomplete floatstone. This may be the stone mentioned "on the left bank in the woods not far away". The left bank of the stream is now very much disturbed and broken-down. There is a well preserved wheel pit; the wheel may have been 2.44 metres diameter by 0.4 metres breast. There is a raised bank for the leat, and a chamber which may have been intended to collect flue dust. One mortarstone with four mortars, two on each of two adjacent faces. The furnace would appear to have been in the corner adjoining the wheelpit, where there is the flue, but no distinguishable remains. Probably a late type of furnace. A stone in the woods on the left bank of the stream, proved to be a float or furnace base, in part formed. On the surface is a channel. The workmanship shows that the stone had as yet been no more than roughed to shape.

Fielden, M. E., 1932-1933, A Celt and a Mortarstone, 43-44, Figure (Article in Serial). SDV142335.

The remains of a blowing house on the right bank of the Glaze Brook about 100 yards below Glaze Meet. An unusual feature is the chamber 12 feet long by approximately 4 feet wide which has been excavated in the natural bank and whose precise purpose is not known. A quadruple tinner's mortar stone, probably unique in form, and of Elizabethan date was found nearby by Mrs. M. E. Felden in September 1931.

Worth, R. H., 1940, Notes on some Dartmoor Blowing Houses, 205, Figure 6 (Article in Serial). SDV218987.

Worth, R. H., 1940, The Dartmoor Blowing House, 217-8 (Article in Serial). SDV154693.

Worth, R. H., 1967, Worth's Dartmoor, 296-8, 326 (Monograph). SDV337618.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1977, SX66SE63 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV142334.

(26/07/1977) The remains of this blowing-house are as shown and described by Worth (1932). The walls vary in height from a maximum of 1.5m. to 0.1m. where they have been knocked down on the south side; they are 0.6m. thick. Two mortar-stones are visible, one visible the blowing-house and one to the south, each having two mortars.
Surveyed at 1:10 000 on P.F.D.

Greeves, T. A. P., 1981, List of Known Devon Tin Mills c1450 - c1750, Number 28 (Report - non-specific). SDV319826.

Greeves, T. A. P., 1990, An Assessment of Dartmoor Tinworking, 41 (Report - Assessment). SDV343684.

Butler, J., 1993, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Four - The South-East, 99, Map 56, Figure 56.13 (Monograph). SDV337765.

'Glaze Meet Tin Mill' just below the junction of East and West Glaze is a reasonably well preserved tin mill (circa 9 metres long by 4.5 metres wide) built into the bank within the shelter of the trees. Three walls still stand to a fair height but much of the lower side including the entrance has disappeared. An unusual feature is the chamber (circa 5 metres by 1.5 metres) built into the bank behind the main building which Worth suggested was to collect flue dust at the back of the furnace, though in this position it would seem to interfere with the workings of the water wheel. The wheel pit on the north side is now filled in but one of the bearing blocks for the axle remains in place. The pit dimensions show the wheel to have been about 2.5 metres in diameter fed via a launder bank from a leat taken off 150 metres upstream. Mortar and mould stones identify the building as both stamping mill and blowing house. A fractured stone containing a sample mould is embedded into the north corner wall and two blocks at the centre have paired cavities from use as mortar stones. One of these was turned after years of use and bears a second pair of depressions worn into a side face. A broken slab outside the entrance was probably a float, its half-prepared replacement lying among the trees on the opposite bank.

Cranstone, D. + Hedley, I., 1995, Monuments Protection Programme: The Tin Industry Step 3 Site Assessments, Devon 46 (Report - non-specific). SDV357946.

A small stamping mill with walls surviving up to seven courses. Also present are two mortar stones, a well preserved wheel pit and leat.

Smerdon, B., 1998, A Find, 13 (Article in Serial). SDV142340.

January Newsletter. Small piece of tin slag found in the tailrace of the mill at Glazemeet. Last use of the mill appears to be as a stamping mill.

Bodman, M., 1998, Water-Powered Sites in Devon, 1, 32 (Report - non-specific). SDV305931.

Ordnance Survey, 2020, MasterMap 2020 (Cartographic). SDV363413.

'Blowing House (remains of)' shown as a rectangular building on modern mapping.

Historic England, 2020, National Heritage List for England, 1002507 (National Heritage List for England). SDV363414.

'Glaze Meet Blowing House (Tinner's Foundry)'. Tin ore extracted from mines was taken to stamping mills to be crushed, using heavy iron-shod stamps attached to the lower end of vertical wooden posts called lifters, which were raised using a water-driven rotating axle. Thus raised, the stamps fell under gravity onto the ore, crushing it between the stamp's head and a hard slab of rock called the mortar stone. The tin mill south of Glaze Meet unusually contains evidence for both activities within one building, more often the two processes are carried out in separate buildings even if they are closely located. Since tin is limited to Cornwall and Devon in England any surviving buildings associated with its processing are both rare and geographically limited. As such this tin mill is a very unusual and important structure which will provide important archaeological evidence for tin processing activities.

Riley, H., 2021, Archaeological Survey: Ugborough Premier Archaeological Landscape, Harford and Ugborough, 17, 7.4.2, Figures 37-38 (Report - Survey). SDV364697.

A building for processing tin ores on the west side of the Glaze Book at Glaze Meet. The mill was used for both crushing and smelting ore. A wheel pit with a tail race and three mortar stones, two inside the building and one built into the northern wall, indicate that tin ore was crushed in this building. The remains of a flue and a mould stone on the northern wall show that the crushed ore was also smelted here.

Riley, H., 2021, UG21 heritage asset database and gazetteer of sites (Report - Survey). SDV364699.

Visited on 15th April 2021, surveyed and photographed. Tin mill with evidence for crushing and smelting tin ore at Glazemeet. Remains of rectangular building, interior dimensions 6 metres east to west, 3.9 metres north to south, with walls of coursed granite blocks 0.6 metres thick, standing to 1.2 metres high on north side; entrance gap on south side; small cell by flue on north-west corner 2.2 metres east to west, 1.1 metres north to south. Granite mouldstone on north wall, three mortarstones: one built into north wall, two inside the building; wheel pit with tail race to Glaze Brook on north side of building. There is a mature beech tree on the south-east corner of the building.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds

• FDV7727 - MORTAR STONE (Early Medieval to Early 20th Century - 1066 AD to 1901 AD)

Associated Events

• EDV8770 - Archaeological Survey: Ugborough Premier Archaeological Lanscape, Harford and Ugborough

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