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Summary

Granite quarries at Holwell Tor, worked as part of the Haytor Granite quarries, set up in the 1820s by George Templer and worked between 1820 and the 1850s.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX77NE52
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 1221076
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX77NE/74

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• QUARRY (Constructed, XVIII to XIX - 1800 AD (Between) to 1900 AD (Between))

Full description

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

Shown as 'Haytor Quarries' on 19th century map.

Adams, E. A., 1946, The Old Heytor Granite Railway, 153-160, Plate (Article in Serial). SDV341504.

Holwell quarry, marked as Haytor Quarries on map. This quarry had a very fine face and much granite was extracted. A branch line of the Haytor Granite Tramway ran from here to the main quarry.

Cocks, J. V. S., 1971-1973, The Haytor Granite Quarries, 13-14 (Article in Serial). SDV283046.

Ewans, M. C., 1977, The Haytor Granite Tramway and Stover Canal (Monograph). SDV341543.

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

Visible and recorded.

Stanier, P., 1985, Granite Quarrying in Devon and Cornwall, 7.li (Article in Serial). SDV342268.

Devon County Council + Teignbridge District Council, 1985, Haytor Granite Tramway and Stover Canal (Report - non-specific). SDV349496.

Holwell Quarry. The Haytor Quarries were developed by George Templer from 1813 and fell out of use in the 1850s. Reached by a half-mile branch of the granite tramway.

Stanier, P., 1986, Granite quarrying in Devon and Cornwall, 9.1 (Article in Serial). SDV283053.

Harris, H., 1994, The Haytor Granite Tramway and Stover Canal, 21 (Monograph). SDV341541.

Newman, P., 1999, 2002, Haytor Down, Ilsington, Devon (Revised), 26-27, Figure 9 +12 (Report - Survey). SDV346395.

(30/05/1999) Holwell Quarry Centred SX7511 7775
The second largest of the Haytor quarries is Holwell, which exploited the large granite outcrop on the north face of Holwell Tor. This quarry was certainly active in 1820, when it is specifically mentioned in association with the opening of the tramway (Ewans, 1964) and was still viable in 1840, when depicted on an archive map How intensely it was worked in the intervening period is not known, though it appears on prints of 1825 and 1829 as a busy working quarry (1.3.4). Judging by the size of the quarry area and the spoil heaps, a considerable quantity of material has been removed from here, probably over many years.
There are two large quarries at the site plus a smaller pit to the far east of the sett. The quarries were served by a branch of the Haytor Granite Tramway (SX 77 NE 76). Only a single tramway was needed to transport finished stone from these quarries and this runs along the north, open side of the quarry faces. It terminates at a point adjacent to the westernmost quarry where a revetted, raised platform may represent a loading facility. The tramway has a passing loop just to the east of Holwell Tor, on the ascent back to the mainline, where the track doubles for a distance of 75m, with points surviving at both ends.
At the eastern quarry work concentrated on two faces leaving a spur of granite protruding in the centre. Both faces are in excess of 20m in height and are almost vertical. The use of blasting is evident on both faces by large numbers of vertical shot holes and the floor of the quarry is strewn with waste material.
The central quarry is smaller though no less deep and it too has sheer faces. The floor is totally covered with large blocks of stone waste. The latest extractive activity at this quarry penetrated the ground below the level of the tramway, which had to be breached by a channel to allow spoil to be removed and dumped to the north. Although a revetted causeway was later installed over the channel, and the sides of the channel were reinforced, the causeway does not align with the tramway and the section to the west of this point must have been disused from the time the channel was cut.
Spoil and overburden from all the quarries were dumped on the north side of the tor, beyond the main tramway taking advantage of the natural slope, resulting in very high bulbous, flat-topped spoil heaps rather than the more usual sinuous finger dumps found at Haytor and Rubble Heap quarries. Fragments of track and hollow cuttings on the tops of heaps demonstrate the courses of tramways used for dumping the waste. These tramways crossed the main tramway in at least four places where stone sets are visible crossing the main line at right angles. Dumping from the later phase of the central quarry is represented by a heap which is visible lower than its neighbours which it nestles between. A small quantity of overburden, probably from an exploratory phase, was dumped into heaps immediately adjacent to the quarries on the hillside.
Five ruined buildings survive at Holwell. There can be no certainty as to the function of any of the buildings though their individual location may offer clues in some cases. The open-fronted structure inside the quarry may be associated with the working of the stone, possible for stone dressing or as a workshop for servicing machinery and tools. The large rectangular structure to the east of the site adjacent to the tramway is likely to be that depicted in a print of 1829 with a sloping, thatched roof, and could perhaps be an office. The well-preserved circular, roofed structure sited amid the spoil heaps is traditionally described as a quarryman's hut or shelter though would have housed few men at one time and its interior would have been extremely dark. Alternatively it could have been an explosive store, with its inner roof constructed from two massive slabs designed to contain the blast in the event of an accidental detonation.
A report and large scale plans are in the NRHE archive.

Royal Commission for the Historical Monuments of England, 2002, Haytor Down: The Archaeology (Plan - measured). SDV359685.

Area of quarry shown on survey.

English Heritage, 2005, Survey Information (miscellaneous date) (Report - Survey). SDV345855.

Quarry shown on survey. Map object partly based on this source.

Ordnance Survey, 2016, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV359352.

Shown as 'Haytor Quarries (disused)' on modern mapping.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV7021 - Haytor Down: Survey Report (Ref: A1/2/1999)

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