See important guidance on the use of this record.

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

Summary

West Vitifer Mine also known as 'New Vitifer' was used for tin production between 1850 and 1875 with features including three round buddles, stamping floor and wheel pit served by a leat. Several shafts and adits in the area are associated with the mine

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1018926: Three agglomerated enclosures containing stone hut circles, a cairn cemetery, post-medieval fields and tinworks on Chagford Common
• SHINE: Extensive area of tin streamworks on the River Bovey related to tin working and the medieval field system around Lakeland Farm

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX68SE405
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 1362773
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX68SE/98
• Old SAM Ref: 28728

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• OPEN CAST MINE (XVIII to XIX - 1800 AD (Between) to 1900 AD (Between))
• TIN MINE (XVIII to XIX - 1800 AD (Between) to 1900 AD (Between))

Full description

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

'West Vitifer Tin Mine (Disused)' shown on 19th century map.

Ordnance Survey, 1904 - 1906, Second Edition Ordnance Survey 25 inch Map (Cartographic). SDV325644.

'West Vitifer Tin Mine (disused)' shown on early 20th century map with three circular buddles and several building outlines.

Greeves, T. A. P., 1985, Steeperton Tor Tin Mine, Dartmoor, 118 (Article in Serial). SDV310154.

Gerrard, S., 1990-1994, Monument Protection Programme, 149396 (Report - Survey). SDV350743.

Site visited on 29th January 1999. West Vitifer Mine is a well preserved late 19th century mine. Three buddles with central mounds complete with drains leading from each survive within an area defined by a wall. This wall is fragile in places and there is evidence of recent collapse. Four other pits in the vicinity of the buddles were probably used as part of the dressing process. Adjacent to the buddles is a small waste tip. South of the dressing floor there is a substantial wheelpit together with building foundations. A leat leading to the site measures up to 2 metres deep.

Butler, J., 1991, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Two - The North, 33, Map 25 (Monograph). SDV219155.

Remains of buildings associated with West Vitifer Tin Mine on the valley floor on the west side of the River Bovey. It seems to have been worked intermittently between 1850 and 1875. A wall partly encloses three round buddles with a subterranean drain leading back to the river. Little can be seen of the stamping floor and wheelpit but the launder bank survives. The depressions of the Engine Shaft can be seen near the buddles with another shaft to the west. A number of adits were driven into the hillside to the south-east and although now blocked they can be recognised form the waste dumps below the entances.

Passmore, A. J., 1997, Boveycombehedd, Chagford, Devon: an archaeological investigation of a Diachronic landscape, 27-33, Figures 4, 5 & 7 (Post-Graduate Thesis). SDV360382.

New Vitifer Mine operating in the 19th century with stone buildings, shafts and adits. Figure 7 shows the location of the Engine Sahft, the wheelpit, stamping floor and the three buddles.

Greeves, T. A. P., 1997, Tin Stamping Mills of Dartmoor after AD 1750, 6-8 (Article in Serial). SDV346020.

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

(07/11/2002) The surviving remains of a 19th century tin mine known as West Vitifer Mine. There is evidence of a wheelpit, a buddle, shaft and opencast working extractive pits. Previous condition unknown.

Bodman, M., 2015, Mills on the Teign. A gazetteer of water-powered sites on the Teign and Bovey and their tributaries, 104 (Monograph). SDV360401.

New Vitifer Mine, Chagford SX 6787 8276. Mine was active in the mid-Victorian period - work ceased in 1875. Remains of workings, engine shaft, stamps platform, dressing floor and buddles, whim platform and some surviving masonry from the wheelpit of a large waterwheel.

Ordnance Survey, 2018, MasterMap 2018 (Cartographic). SDV360652.

'West Vitifer Tin Mine (disused)' shown on modern mapping.

Historic England, 2018, National Heritage List for England, 1018926 (National Heritage List for England). SDV360653.

There are several tinworks within the monument and amongst these are an openwork, prospecting gully, shafts, a whim platform, areas of alluvial and eluvial streamworking and a 19th century tin mine known as West Vitifer Mine.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV7505 - Boveycombehedd, Chagford: An Archaeological Investigation of a Diachronic Landscape
• EDV7139 - Headland Warren and the Birch Tor and Vitifer Mines Survey (Ref: A1/20/2001, A1/34/2002)

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