Local History
By Mary Freeman
Mystery Object from the River Tavy
IN August 2007, when the new screens were being erected on the intake to the Tavistock Canal, there was interest in objects found in the River Tavy below Abbey Bridge. The most peculiar of these was a rectangular block of granite, hollowed out as a pair of hemispherical bowls. A popular speculation at the time was that it was a mould for cannon balls.
With some difficulty the block was removed from the river bed and transferred to the little garden at Court Gate. It measures about 44 inches (1100 mm) long by 20 inches (500 mm) wide by 20 inches (500 mm) broad and 8 inches (200 mm) deep. Each bowl has a plug hole now blocked. Their upper dimension is 12 inches (300 mm) and the depth to the surface of the water about 4 inches (100 mm).
A groove
crosses the bowls along the length of the block, reducing their capacity to slightly less than a gallon (4.5 litres). There is a three quarters inch (18 mm) hole near the mid- point of the groove. On one of the long sides of the block there is indication that it was once mortared to a wall.
Clearly this was not a mould for cannon balls, but what was its function? A twin washing bowl seems unlikely. There is a possible clue in the previous uses of the river bank in the area, which was further back before Market Road was constructed in about 1860. At the time of the Abbey a range of domestic offices, such as stables, bordered
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the 17th century. The
granite block able to hold and release two measured quantities of liquid, may have been one of the dyer’s appurtenances, poised above a vat of dye. A lease to John Oake, in 1691, mentioned a furnace and appurtenances.
After
he gave up in 1709 the building became a malthouse, the Delafontaine engraving of 1741, shows a lean-to against it with a water wheel. The site is near the present telephone box on the edge of Guildhall Square.
the south-east side of the Great Court. These were later adapted for various industrial purposes. One
two-storey building, opposite the downstream tip of the island in the river, was a dyehouse in
Why the apparatus was constructed laboriously of granite, rather than using measures of wood, or leather, or pottery, is another question, but at least it was robust and evidently had been a fixture. It can be supposed that when no longer needed it was thrown into the river. Abbey Bridge was built in 1753, and there has been time in the last 250 or so years for successive spates to move the heavy block downstream to below the bridge, where it was found.
The Tavistock Museum will re-open on Saturday 3rd April 2010 and will be open daily until the end of October 2010. Featured exhibitions this year are John Taylor and the Tavistock Canal, Dartmoor Photographs Past and Present, and The Tavonians Theatre Group.
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