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Summary

A well preserved blowing mill with a wheel pit and possible furnace structure and walled yard at Outer Down, Chagford. At Outer Down, south of the house (at each corner of the garden path) are the remains of a mortarstone and an unbroken mouldstone.

Summary from record MDV30884:
Slag from Outer Down blowing mill donated to Plymouth Museum in 1975.

Summary from record MDV30885:
Tin slag from Outer Down blowing mill donated to Plymouth Museum in 1975.

Summary from record MDV30886:
Light tin slag from Outer Down blowing mill donated to Plymouth Museum in 1975. Only contains small amounts of tin.

Summary from record MDV30887:
Possibly slagged and partially vitrified granite from Outer Down blowing mill donated to Plymouth Museum in 1975.

Location

Protected Status

• SHINE: Outer Down Blowing Mill. Walls of well preserved blowing house 82 metres west of North Down Cottage
• Scheduled Monument 1406794: Blowing Mill at Outer Down

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX68NE59
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 443644
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX68NE/45
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX68NE/45/1
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX68NE/45/2
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX68NE/45/3
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX68NE/45/4

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• BLOWING HOUSE (Built, XVI to XVII - 1540 AD (Between) to 1700 AD (Between))
• WATERMILL (Built, XVI to XVII - 1540 AD (Between) to 1700 AD (Between))
• WHEEL PIT (Built, XVI to XVII - 1540 AD (Between) to 1700 AD (Between))

Full description

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

Tithe apportionment lists 523: copse, 525: Twicky stones.

Worth, R. H., 1927, A blowing house in the parish of Chagford, 343-4, Plate 12-13, Fig. 1 (Article in Serial). SDV275194.

A rectangular ruin in the grounds of "Outer Down" is the remains of a blowing house. The building 38ft by 17ft internally, comprises two chambers and a wheel-pit. The hillside had been scarped back to permit the construction of the building so that the floor level is about 8ft below the adjacent ground. This allowed the leat (SX 68 NE 100) to be brought to the waterwheel. A broken mould stone is built into the outer wall and in the garden of "Outer Down" are an unbroken mould stone and a mortar-stone.
Building is divided into two compartments, separated partially by a wall, through which there is an opening, 0.63 metres wide, a greater thickness than the outer walls. Furnace may have been placed here. Well marked leat, which still carries water to another site. Wheel may have been 3.05 metres in diameter and 0.4 metres breast.
A broken mouldstone was found, cavity at the bottom. Another mouldstone from this house has been removed to the grounds of Outer Down. It would contain 171 kilograms of tin when filled. There is also a mortar, diameter 0.28 metres, depth 0.19 metres also taken to Outer Down grounds. The broken mouldstone was built into the outer wall of the building.

Worth, R. H., 1940, The Dartmoor Blowing House, 212-3 (Article in Serial). SDV154693.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1978, SX68NE59, Plan (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV275193.

(01/02/1978) The blowing-house at 'Outer Down' is in a ruinous condition. The outer wall, 0.8 metres to 0.9 metres thick, varies in height up to a maximum of 1.7 metres, and consists of massive roughly-squared blocks of stone. The leat was on the west side but its course into the building cannot be traced. An interior wall at right angles to the long side divides the building into two chambers of unequal size. The wheel pit is visible in the south-west corner and is 0.3 metres deep. A broken mould stone is set in the wall on the west side of the entrance in the north wall.
About 5.0 metres south of the house, at each corner of a garden path, are an unbroken mould-stone measuring 0.8 metres by 0.7 metres with a cavity 0.4 metres by 0.3 metres by 0.15 metres deep, and a mortar-stone measuring 0.9 metres by 0.5 metres, with a mortar-hole 0.3 metres by 0.3 metres by 0.2 metres deep. Surveyed at 1:2500 on AM.

Greeves, T. A. P., 1981, List of Known Devon Tin Mills c1450 - c1750, No 37, 65 (Report - non-specific). SDV319826.

Mould stones still visible. Blowing/stamping? mill (undocumented) field evidence. Documented mill at Hole and Collaton may be identified with this mill.

Greeves, T. A. P., 1981, Medieval Industry, 92 (Article in Serial). SDV275197.

This is listed as a pre-1700 tin-mill. Analysis of slag gave results of 13.5% tin. This indicates very poor smelting conditions.

Greeves, T. A. P., 1987, List of donations to the Plymouth Museum (Un-published). SDV243606.

(11/04/1975) Tin slag from Outer Down blowing mill. SX68218658 Possibly slagged and partially vitrified granite from Outer Down blowing mill (? Furnace lining).
Light tin slag from Outer Down blowing mill - contains only small amounts of tin according to xrf.

Greeves, T. A. P., 1990, An Assessment of Dartmoor Tinworking, 39 (Report - Assessment). SDV343684.

Cranstone, D. + Hedley, I., 1995, The Tin Industry, Step 3 Site Assessments: Devon, 59,61 (Report - Assessment). SDV346887.

A well preserved blowing mill with a wheel pit and possible furnace structure and walled yard.

Ordnance Survey, 2011, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV346129.

'Blowing House' depicted on the modern mapping.

English Heritage, 2013, National Heritage List for England (National Heritage List for England). SDV350785.

An early post-medieval tin blowing mill, terraced into a west-facing slope within the valley of the South Teign River. It is situated in the gardens to the west of Outer Down, an early-C20 country house (Grade II).
The blowing mill at Outer Down is scheduled for the following principal reasons: * Archaeological interest: the site is an early post-medieval blowing mill which is of national importance for the understanding of tin smelting; * Survival: the blowing mill has been identified as one of the best surviving blowing mills on Dartmoor; * Potential: the site has not been excavated and will contain important archaeological and metallurgical information concerning the character and technology of early tin smelting.
From the medieval period until the early C19 black tin (cassiterite) extracted from streamworks and mines was taken to blowing mills (also known as blowing houses) to be smelted. At the blowing mill the cassiterite may have been washed a final time before being put in the furnace together with charcoal. To smelt tin the temperature within the furnace had to reach 1150°C. This was achieved by blowing air through the furnace using water-powered bellows. Once the tin had become molten, it flowed from the furnace into a float stone and was ladled into the mould stone, in which it cooled to form an ingot of white tin.
Blowing mills are typically rectangular drystone buildings served by one or more leats and internally are characterised by the presence of granite blocks with moulds cut into them – bevelled rectangular troughs known as mould stones – and on occasion by the survival of the square or rectangular stone-built base of the furnace itself.
The original number of blowing mills on Dartmoor is unknown but at least 26 are believed to survive, whilst a further 41 are known only from stray finds and documentary sources. This blowing mill at Outer Down is considered to be of early post-medieval date and is located 250 metres to the west of the hamlet of Thorn. It is depicted on the current Ordnance Survey map as well as the second edition OS map published in 1905.
In 1927, a measured survey of the blowing house was undertaken by R H Worth. In the late C20 an analysis of slag recovered from the vicinity of the mill revealed that it contained 13.5% tin. This high proportion of tin indicates poor smelting efficiency and would, therefore, suggest a relatively early date for the operation of this blowing mill.
The blowing mill which is probably early post-medieval in date, survives as a roofless ruin. It is built of granite blocks and is rectangular in plan. The interior is divided into two rooms, the smaller of which contains a wheel pit against the southern wall.
The blowing mill is terraced into a west-facing slope within the valley of the South Teign River. It survives as a ruinous, rectangular building; the walls standing up to 1.7m high. The interior of the mill is divided into two rooms. The smaller, western, room measures 4.9m long by 3m wide and contains a wheel pit built against the southern wall. The eastern room measures 7.4 m long by 4.9m wide and is filled with rubble. The internal dividing wall has a 1m wide opening at its north end. Although there is no visible evidence for the furnace, the dividing wall is of a greater thickness (1.5m) than the external walls which may indicate that this is the position of the furnace. Buried archaeological deposits associated with the furnace may survive in the vicinity of this internal wall. A broken mould stone has been incorporated into the north wall of the structure. The scheduled area occupies a roughly rectangular area measuring approximately 15m by 6m.
The mortar stone and mould stone within the garden of Outer Down, that lie some distance from the scheduled monument, are not included in the scheduling.

Bodman, M., 2015, Mills on the Teign. A gazetteer of water-powered sites on the Teign and Bovey and their tributaries, 68 (Monograph). SDV360401.

Outer Down tin blowing mill, Chagford SX 6821 8658. Shown on the OS mapping as a 'blowing house', this was powered by a separate watercourse, now lost. Remains of a rectangular granite structure survive in the garden of Outer Down, consisting of a two-room building with wheelpit in the western room. An unbroken mould-stone and a mortar stone survive in the garden, with a further, damaged mould-stone built into the wall of the mill. Waterwheel might have been 10ft diameter by 1ft. Mill assumed to have functioned prior to 1700.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds

• FDV7994 - MOULDSTONE (XVI to XVII - 1540 AD to 1700 AD)
• FDV7993 - SLAG (XVI to XVII - 1540 AD to 1700 AD)

Associated Events: none recorded

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