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Summary

The leat was probably first constructed in 1793 and subsequently extended on two occasions to bring water from the East Dart and North Teign to the Birch Tor and Vitifer mines. It follows the contours and thus takes a contorted route of about 7 kilometres.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1021340: Tinworks, field systems, settlements, warren, cairns and a stone alignment at Headland Warren
• Scheduled Monument 1018710: Three agglomerated enclosures, a round cairn and part of the Stannon block field system lying within Great Stannon Newtake
• SHINE: Extensive earthwork remains of medieval or later streamworking on the East Dart River, centred around Broad Marsh, along with the structural remains of eight tinners' huts

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX68SE324
• National Monuments Record: SX68SW106
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 1339538
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 763393
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX68SE/24
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX68SE/66/5

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• LEAT (Constructed, XVIII to XIX - 1793 AD? (Between) to 1830 AD (Between))

Full description

Ordnance Survey, 1880-1899, First Edition Ordnance 25 inch map (Cartographic). SDV336179.

Royal Air Force, 1947, RAF/CPE/UK/2149, 4308-9, 4313 (Aerial Photograph). SDV282746.

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

The Vitifer Mine Leat was constructed in 1830 to bring in water from the East Dart. It is approximately 7 miles in length. Either at the same time or a little later the flow was supplemented by water led in from the North Teign. Like some of the other leats it is crossed at a number of places by simple stone clapper footbridges. The point of intake of the East Dart is at SX625812, on the north bank of the river near Sandy Hole. Contouring the hillsides the leat takes a tortuous north-easterly course, continuing south of Sittaford Tor before being joined by its tributary from the North Teign. Presently it swings to the south and passes under the Two Bridges-Moretonhampstead road (B3212) less than a mile south-west of the Warren House Inn. It then flows into the Vitifer area, after which the water eventually finds its way to the West Webburn and back to the Dart at a lower point.

Broughton, D. G., 1968-1969, The Birch Tor & Vitifer tin mining complex (Article in Serial). SDV291528.

National Monuments Record, 1977, SX6483, (A/239-40) (Aerial Photograph). SDV262962.

Robins, J., 1982/1983, Follow the Leat (Monograph). SDV352718.

Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, 1985, Aerial Photograph Project (Dartmoor) - Dartmoor Pre-NMP (Cartographic). SDV319854.

Vitifer Mine Leat. Constructed in around 1830 to lead water from the East Dart and North Teign to the Vitifer Mine. Runs 11.3 kilometres, SX65008281to SX68078110. Visible and recorded, but not drawn east of SX67338058 because it would get confused with streamworks and other features in this area; besides, it is shown on the Ordnance Survey 1:10560 map anyway.

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

(02/07/1990) Within Great Stannon Newtake, this is now a dry and silted channel. It was augmented by the Whitehorse Leat (PRN 59418) which joins it at SX64028272. It follows a sinuous course across the newtake from the boundary wall (SX63478157) along the steep valley slope and across a narrow watershed (SX 64078272) into Fernworthy Forest (SX 64858281). It re-enters the newtake at SX65698193, crosses a second narrow watershed (SX 65578152) to the newtake wall (SX65748112). It is, on average, 1.7 meters wide and 0.6 meters deep with a strong stony bank on its downhill side. It is particularly impressive on the steep slopes (SX63648200) where, in places, it is 2.4 meters and 0.8 meters deep.
A second, less substantial leat follows a more or less parallel course but a few metres higher up the slope. It eventually joins the main leat at SX65558169 in the south-east corner of the newtake. Perhaps the lower leat was dug to replace the upper leat which may have become silted and damaged.

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

Gerrard, S., 1990-2002, Monument Protection Programme. Archaeological Item Dataset., MPP 144243 (Report - Survey). SDV277946.

Site visit 1997. At SX64398277 a length of the leat was seen cutting through the reave 610 metres south-east of the Grey Wethers stone circles.

Butler, J., 1991, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Two - The North, 159-161, Map 35 (Monograph). SDV219155.

Leats depicted on Butler's map.

Royal Commission for the Historical Monuments of England, 1993-1998, Dartmoor Royal Forest Project, P. Newman / H. Riley (Report - Survey). SDV346608.

(10/12/1992) SX62518118-68078109. The Birch Tor and Vitifer Mine Leat follows a sinuous course across the newtake from the boundary wall (SX63178157) along the steep valley slope and across a narrow water shed (SX64078272) into Fernworthy Forest (SX64858281). It re-enters the newtake at SX65699193, crosses a second narrow watershed at SX65578152 to the newtake wall at SX65748112. It continues to a point where it meets the Walla Brook 20m south of the B3212 at SX67588100. The leat follows a direct route across the lower slopes of Merripit Hill between the Stannon Wall at Statts Brook at SX66698081. At this point, it adopts the course of the brook for 120m before turning to the east at SX66758071. It then follows the contour of the lower slopes of Water Hill. Here the leat channel runs through an area of intensive tin-working (Monument HOB UIDs 916223 and 916242) and earth and stone embankments have been constructed to convey the leat across four separate openworks at SX67158048, SX67358061, SX67388076, and SX67408070.
It is well preserved with cleanly cut vertical sides and a depth of up to 2m in places The average width is 2m and a bank of upcast material on the downslope side measures 3.5m wide by 1.0m high. The leat's two sources were the East Dart River and the South Teign, via the Whitehorse Leat (Monument HOB UID 444016). It served the waterwheels at the Birch Tor and Vitifer, and Golden Dagger Mines. A branch of the leat which diverges at SX66268109, supplied water to Wheal Caroline Mine, (Monument HOB UID 920265).
(02/12/1995) The upper portion of the Birch Tor and Vitifer mine leat was surveyed as part of the Dartmoor Royal Forest Project in December 1994. The now dry silted channel runs above the left bank of the East Dart River from the intake at SX62538118 to the edge of the Great Stannon Newtake at SX63448154, where it is as described by Fletcher (1990).

Cranstone, D. + Hedley, I., 1995, Monuments Protection Programme: The Tin Industry Step 3 Site Assessments, Devon 56D (Report - non-specific). SDV357946.

Additonal reference.

Whitbourne, A., 2001, Visit to Vitifer and Birch Tor Mines, 3-4 (Article in Serial). SDV305962.

Leat running north-south from the complex of mine buildings at SX 68258102 to the site of the 'Vitifer' dressing floors and wheel pit at SX 68338072.

Newman, P., 2002, Headland Warren and the Birch Tor and Vitifer Mines (Report - Survey). SDV363213.

(29/03/2001) Birch Tor and Vitifer Mine Leat (Birch Tor, Vitifer and Golden Dagger section).
The leat which supplied all the waterwheels for pumping and processing at the mine (SX 68 SE 301) has its sources some 5.5km from the mine on the East Dart and North Teign rivers (see SX 68 SW 105; 106 for upper sections). The leat enters the Birch Tor Vitifer area to the south of the Warren House Inn, skirting round the upper coombe of the Walla Brook. It consists of a well-defined channel, now dry and silted, which mostly follows a level course along the contour. The channel is up to 2.5m wide in places and a mound of upcast from the channel survives on the downslope side. The first waterwheel to be supplied by the leat was SX 68 SE 320 which is sited just below the channel at SX 6788 8082. The main leat continues from here, steeply down hill in places, to the second wheelpit at SX 68 SE 316 (SX 6806 8110). After flowing over this wheel the water exited back into another leat channel which then crosses the Birch Tor Lode openwork and continues NE to a third wheelpit at SX 6816 8122 (SX 68 SE 313). From here the water was fed into the Redwater stream to be diverted yet again onto the dressing floor waterwheels at SX 6819 8033 (SX 68 SE 326) and SX 6833 8072 (SX 68 SE 325) via two additional sections of leat. The leat also supplied water to the Engine Wheel at Golden Dagger Mine. A branch for this purpose leaves the main leat at SX 6777 8077 and heads south across Soussons Common . Two sections of wooden launder would have been required for the leat to cross the large openwork and a 63m section of stone causeway survives on the south side of the openwork which was needed to navigate the leat around the side of the hill while maintaining maximum altitude.

English Heritage, 2005, Leats Survey Information (Report - Survey). SDV347529.

Course of the leat depicted on survey information. Map object based on this Source.

Dartmoor Trust and Dartmoor National Park Authority, 2010, Dartmoor Trust Leats Project 2009-2010 (Report - Survey). SDV347530.

Dry. (Note - several water channels within the mine site, some of which are clearly man-made). Other details: T:\Dartmoor Leats Survey / Q:\MAPDATA\HISTORIC\LeatsProject.

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

Map object based on this Source.

Newman, P., 2013, Fernworthy Forest Sites Survey (Un-published). SDV351708.

Newman, P., 2013, The Archaeology of Fernworthy Forest, Dartmoor, Devon, 60, Figs 2, 54 (Report - Survey). SDV351784.

The Birch Tor and Vitifer leat diverted water from the East Dart and North Teign on moorland west of Fernworthy to the Birch Tor and Vitifer mines over 4 kilometres to the south-east. Probably originally dug in 1793 it was extended on two occasions. Two sections of the leat run in parallel across the south-west sector of Fernworthy plantation. The lower leat is the larger here with an internal width of up to 2.0 metres and is visible for most of its course through the forest. The higher leat currently runs across open ground but is course is less visible where it has been disturbed by forestry tracks. Both leats comprise a flat-bottomed channel with very little silting with a mound of upcast material along the downslope side.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV6203 - Archaeological Survey of Fernworthy Forest
• EDV7139 - Headland Warren and the Birch Tor and Vitifer Mines Survey (Ref: A1/20/2001, A1/34/2002)
• EDV7389 - Fernworthy Forest condition survey 1996
• EDV7410 - Fernworthy Forest condition survey 1992
• EDV8649 - Little Stannon Newtake, Duchy Farms Survey
• EDV8650 - Great Stannon Newtake, Duchy Farms Survey
• EDV8409 - Dartmoor Royal Forest Project

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