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Summary

The remains of a 19th century tin mine. The mine was never very successful and is not well documented although it is mentioned on an indenture of 1825 and shown on a plan of 1826. Surviving features, on the south-west side of Water Hill, include shaft heads, an adit, a possible reservoir and a wheel pit. The remains of a small building nearby are also associated with the mine.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX68SE219
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 920265
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX68SE/7

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• ADIT (Constructed, XIX - 1825 AD (Between) to 1879 AD (Between))
• MINE SHAFT (Constructed, XIX - 1825 AD (Between) to 1879 AD (Between))
• RESERVOIR (Constructed, XIX - 1825 AD (Between) to 1879 AD (Between))
• TIN MINE (Constructed, XIX - 1825 AD (Between) to 1879 AD (Between))
• WHEEL PIT (Constructed, XIX - 1825 AD (Between) to 1879 AD (Between))

Full description

Unknown, 1825, 924/B8/31: Indenture describing Sale of Shares in Wheal Caroline Mine, 30-31 (Record Office Collection). SDV277421.

Wheal Caroline is not well documented but is mentioned on an indenture of 1825 on which the bounds are described.

Unknown, 1826, Share Prospectus and map of Wheal Caroline Mine (Record Office Collection). SDV354380.

A plan of 1826, associated with a share prospectus, depicts several elements which survive today, including the leat and the stamping mill.

Colenso, 1836, Colenso's Report On Mines (Report - Assessment). SDV277419.

Page, J. L. W., 1895, An Exploration of Dartmoor and its Antiquities, with some account of its borders, with some account of its borders, 1889 edition? (Monograph). SDV344985.

Crossing, W., 1912 (1965), Crossing's Guide to Dartmoor, 475 (Monograph). SDV320981.

Royal Air Force, 1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1995, 4361 (Aerial Photograph). SDV224714.

Harris, H., 1968, Industrial Archaeology of Dartmoor, 205 (Monograph). SDV149229.

The remains of a small mine, Wheal Caroline, with the ruins of a miner's house, to the west of Warren House Inn.

Hemery, E., 1983, High Dartmoor, 514 + n35 (Monograph). SDV249702.

The remains of a small building on the south-west slope of Water Hill with, nearby, deep gerts, pits and shfts (since filled in) constitute the remains of Wheal Caroline. The mine was so relatively unproductive that it was omitted from Mining Records.

Greeves, T. A. P., 1985, Steeperton Tor Tin Mine, Dartmoor, 104 (Article in Serial). SDV310154.

Reference to a shareholder of 1825 who, in 1836, was operating Steeperton Tor Mine.

The Royal Commission on the Historic Monuments of England Aerial Photograph Unit, 1985, The Royal Commission on the Historic Monuments of England Aerial Photograph Project (Interpretation). SDV340940.

Three openwork mines are visible extending north-east up Water Hill.

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

(10/12/1992) Centred SX 66908100. Surface evidence of mining activity at the nineteenth century tin mine known as Wheal Caroline (Crossing, 1912, pg. 475). The remains are located at three separate sites on the southwest slopes of Water Hill, to the east of Statts Brook at SX 66838085, SX 67088095 and between SX 66688110 and SX 66928125.
A tin stamping mill and dressing floor, at SX 66648084 (Monument HOB UID 919740), 40m to the west of Statts Brook, is also part of this mine (Prospectus and map, 1826, DRO) as are the buildings of Caroline Farm at SX 66808014 (Monument HOB UID 443878) (Hemery, 1983, pg. 514).
Wheal Caroline is not well documented but is mentioned on an indenture of 1825 where bounds are described (Indenture, 1825, DRO). A plan of 1826, associated with a share prospectus, depicts several elements which survive today, including the leat and the stamping mill (Prospectus/map, 1826). Page noted that the mine was in a state of dereliction in 1879 (Page, 1889).
The field remains to the east of Statts Brook are mainly surface evidence of underground activity and comprise the following:
SX 66868122, SX 66888124 and SX 66928125. Three shaftheads aligned on a southwest to northeast orientation and spaced up to 20m apart. Each consists of a conical pit with a crescentic ring of spoil on the downslope side. The average diameter of the pits is 6m by 1.7m deep and spoil rings are 1.6m high by approximately 6.2m wide at base.
SX 66858121. A probable adit entrance, now blocked, and linear spoilheap. An ovoid marshy depression measuring 4.5m by 7m and 0.8m deep is all that is currently visible of the adit entrance which was associated with the three shaftheads to the east. The spoil heap, which lies between SX 66848121, 12m to the west of the adit, and SX 66808118, has an approximately level upper.
SX 66728113. Two pairs of opposing curved banks forming raised elliptical hollows, 25m long by 10m wide. These features may have been used to divert and store water from the Wheal Caroline leat (Monument HOB UID 916213), into the main Vitifer Mine leat (Monument HOB UID 763393) to the south.
SX 66848083. Fragmentary remains of a wheelpit which housed a waterwheel used to power pumping equipment in the nearby underground working. The wheelpit was constructed within an earlier disused openwork and now consists only of a pit 30m by 15m north to south, and 6m deep, containing some tumbled masonry. An outflow channel measuring up to 3m wide by 1.2m deep runs south from the south-west end of the wheelpit. Water was supplied via a large linear reservoir located 30m to the north-east at SX 66888086 which forms the termination point of the Wheal Caroline leat (Monument HOB UID 916213). It is essentially a widening of the leat but has also been built within and incorporating part of the openwork. It has internal dimensions of 30m north to south and between 5.3m and 2m wide. The front retaining bank is 1m high and between 2 - 5.3m wide. The scarp to the rear has a drop of 1.5m (A short section of wooden launder would have been necessary to divert water onto the wheel).
The Ordnance Survey 6 inch map of 1906 depicts a shaft at this site but its position on the ground is not immediately obvious.
SX 67188095 A steep-sided shafthead, cut into rock and located within a previously disused openwork. The shaft survives to a depth of 6m. The area immediately surrounding the shafthead is covered with raised mounds of spoil.
"...Wheal Caroline, a mine so relatively unproductive as to have been omitted from Mining Records. The water-wheel pit seen at right-angles to the path from Stats [sic] Bridge to the mine, was fed by the V leat, its tail-race returning the water to the leat-channel just below the path" (Hemery, 1983, pg. 514).
"..a tin mine on the south-west of Water Hill known as Wheal Caroline. It was one of the less successful ventures and little is to be seen apart from a few gullies and a deep pit at the site of the shaft" (Butler, 1991, pg. 37).
"A small area of workings on the western edge of the large Birch Tor-Vitifer mining area lies within Lydford parish. These include cuttings and dumps beside the B3212 road opposite the Warren House Inn, and on the other side of the road, west of the tin, the remains of a small mine, Wheal Caroline (SX 668808), with the ruins of a miner's house" (Harris, 1968, 205).

Butler, J., 1991, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Two - The North, 37, Map 26 (Monograph). SDV219155.

Wheal Caroline, a tin mine on the south-west of Water Hill, was one of the less successful ventures and there is little to be seen apart from a few gullies and a deep pit at the site of the shaft.

Newman, P., 1996, Recording the Tinworks of Dartmoor Forest, 143-149 (Article in Serial). SDV337905.

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

English Heritage, 2013, Pastscape (Website). SDV352645.

Remains of a nineteenth century tin mine on Water Hill. The mine is not well documented but is mentioned on an indenture of 1825 and shown on a plan of 1826. It was in a state of dereliction by 1879. An archaeological field survey in 1992 identified several surviving features including three shaft heads comprising conical pits with an average diameter of 6 metres and depth of 1.7 metres, an adit, a possible reservoir and remains of a wheel pit. The wheel pit measures 30 metres by 15 metres and 6 metres deep and housed a waterwheel which powered pumping equipment. Possible associated mine buildings and a stamping mill were also recorded. NMR No. SX68SE219. Record last updated: 2008.

Watts, S., 2013, Wheal Caroline Mine (Personal Comment). SDV354400.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8409 - Dartmoor Royal Forest Project
• EDV8423 - Duchy Farms Project

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