A ‘mine’ of information
Mining in the Buckfastleigh area
MORE than 2,000 years ago, the ancient Greeks and the Romans knew about the existence of copper and tin in the south west of England. This history is embedded in the name we give tin’s main ore, ‘cassiterite’, an ancient Greek word meaning ‘Tin Islands near the west coast of Europe’. These ore deposits were created 280 million years ago when super-heated gasses from the liquid granite rocks escaped into the contact areas with the surrounding older rocks.
their own. It seems strange to think that our picturesque rural area was once the centre of a mining industry. But mining has had a long and important association with south Devon. Bronze cannon sailed with our Navy and copper covered the bottoms of our ships to protect the wood from the dreaded marine ship worm. (hence copper bottom protection!) Tin and copper was first
The mining of these two important metals helped mankind leave the stone age and move into the bronze age. Bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, is harder than both metals on
extracted from sediments laid down by ice age rivers that washed the ores down from Dartmoor. Being heavy, the ores settled in flatter areas and river terraces and were not so easily washed away as lighter minerals. Miners worked deposits alongside the
streams north and west to where the mother lodes were exposed in the river beds and so began true sub-surface mining. The Rutherford mine at Combe Bridge was first worked as open cast before mine shafts were dug. In the late 1700s and 1800s, some copper and tin ores were so rich they contained more than 50 per cent metal. Caroline Wheal (mine) Prosper, two miles outside the town on a tributary of the Dean Burn, worked a lode that was between 3ft and 6ft wide. In 1814, the Buckfastleigh Copper Mine sold ore for £1,300 which was a considerable sum. Other records show that in 1865, 65 tonnes of ore went to Swansea where it was sold for £550. In 1866 more than 780 tonnes of copper sold for £4,666. This sale made a small profit of just £160 for its investors. Sadly, no great fortunes were ever made from the mines even though huge sums of money were invested and significant building and construction projects were undertaken, such as the leat (canal) that carried water to the mills at Emma Wheal opposite Brook House. This canal was the longest artificial watercourse in the west of England.
was sold to merchants in Ashburton, a stannary town since 1305. Stannary towns were
36 Locally produced tin
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