BURIED TREASURE ?

by Colin Burbidge

The news in early July 2021 of a £450 million new factory to make batteries in the UK as part of the electric vehicle revolution has focussed minds on the value of home-produced ores such as tin.

According to the International Tin Association “Over the next decade tin has many opportunities in lithium ion and other batteries, solar PV, thermoelectric materials,  hydrogen-related applications, and carbon capture”

 Just over 100 years ago, a similar dialogue was being aired over Devon and its tin resources.

From the Devon & Exeter Gazette 10th April 1917

To the Editor of the Gazette

Sir,—You will have seen the Ministry of Munitions has at last established a branch to deal with the development of mineral  producing ores for the manufacture of metals. This gives Devon— especially Dartmoor—its greatest opportunity. … There has never been anything in the way of successful and profitable working of Devon mines, except that was it easier to  buy foreign ores. The war has practically put an end to this, and without labouring the reasons, we have now got to help ourselves to our own ores. For quality, the Cornish tin smelters know that Dartmoor tin ore cannot be beaten. Th« usual average price obtained for Dartmoor tin ranges from £8 to £11 per ton more than highest Cornish price.

Chagford district, perhaps, yields some of the brightest tin ore. From Sands Gate near Sandy Park—very rich tin ore was produced many years ago. Then, also, from the disused mines on the Moretonhampstead side of Chagford rich deposits were worked. It is of interest just now to relate that when the late Mr. Browning of Moor Park Hotel, Chagford in about 1908-09, had a pit made for his garage, a tin lode was exposed, and I had the pleasure of seeing a specimen which Mr. Browning had taken, and it was certainly a very good stone. Another case— an extraordinary one—was from a small trial pit dug at Murchington : the lode was known to be there by an old tin-miner. In company with an expert metallurgist from London a sample stone was taken from this shallow pit, broken from the lode, and assayed at  54% tin. I could  give, many other instances of good deposits.

 For the present I would say "Help yourselves to what is your own. 'Germany will never again be allowed to scour  the mineral wealth of Devon."

 Yours truly, T. SETTLE,

(Late Manager Golden Dagger Tin Mine Dartmoor,  And the Gooseford (Arsenic) Mine, Okehampton.)

A week later, in response to this letter the following Editorial appeared in the Exeter & Plymouth Gazette, clearly not everyone was as optimistic about mining tin ore on Dartmoor as Mr Settle…

A good deal of interest has been taken in a  letter which appeared in the Gazette a few days ago from Mr. T. Settle of Leeds, but formerly of Exeter, who referred to Devon's opportunity now that the  Ministry  of Munitions has at last  established a branch to deal with the development of mineral property-producing ores for the manufacture of metals under the leadership of its Controller Sir Lionel Phillips, Bart.. Mr. Settle referred to certain properties in North Bovey, Sandgate, near Sandypark, and Murchington, In connection with that I have received a communication from a geologist and metallurgist in which he says “The question of production of all classes of ore of service in the arts and commerce is one which calls for the utmost  consideration and especially so at the present time. The position of Dartmoor is somewhat unique: it is a fact well known to geologists that on the Moor there are many outcrops of tin stones, and that they are close to the surface, but almost universally they go no deeper

In cases where they do go deeper, lodes are so poor that no power can make a mine a paying concern: it would be well for the public to know this. If a Company were to be formed and to sink money into such an adventure, their coin would certainly be “sunk on Dartmoor." that is the experience of all who have embarked on mining in that quarter. Granite is a matrix of tin, but the Dartmoor granite is poor to a degree this respect. There have been very many attempts to raise ore in that locality - All have been comparative failures from the ore point view, and practically all from the financial standpoint.” I do not know what reply Mr. Settle, who has had great experience in Dartmoor mining, will make of the above statement, but any correspondence on the matter cannot be but helpful. I am glad, however, to be able to state that several people owning property on Dartmoor are taking a keen interest in the move being made by the Ministry of Munitions, and in one case I understand that a gentleman owning a tin sett of 900 acres on the Moor is ready to grant a licence for working it and this will, no doubt, be taken up immediately.

 Exeter & Plymouth Gazette 17th April 1917

Dartmoor Granite - a ‘matrix of tin’

For the geologically minded: further reading on tin and granite:

Formation of tin ore deposits: A reassessment

Bernd Lehmann

The Upper Teign - Children of the Mist

 Sourced by Colin Burbidge

The following beautifully composed extract describing the Upper Teign, is from Eden Phillpotts’ book “Children of the Mist”, set around a mill near Chagford, it was published in 1898 the first in an 18-book cycle based in and around Dartmoor.

Phillpotts was born in 1862 in India and died at Broadclyst in Devon in 1960. Phillpotts was for many years the President of the Dartmoor Preservation Association and cared passionately about the conservation of Dartmoor.

Chapter 4 “By the River”

“The wooded valley lay under a grey and breezy forenoon; swaying alders marked each intermittent gust with a silver ripple of upturned foliage, and still reaches of the river similarly answered the wind with hurrying flickers and furrows of dimpled light. Through its transparent flood, where the waters ran in shadow and escaped reflections, the river revealed a bed of ruddy brown and rich amber. This harmonious colouring proceeded from the pebbly bottom, where a medley of warm agate tones spread and shimmered, like some far-reaching mosaic beneath the crystal.

Looking into Blacksmith’s pool from Milfordleigh Woods

Above Teign’s shrunken current extended oak and ash, while her banks bore splendid concourse of the wild water-loving dwellers in that happy valley. meadowsweet nodded creamy crests; hemlock and fool’s parsley and seeding willowherb crowded together beneath far-scattered filigree of honeysuckles and brambles with berries, some ripe, some red; while the scarlet corals of briar and white bryony gemmed every riotous trailing thicket, dene, and dingle along the river’s brink; and in the grassy spaces between rose little chrysoprase steeples of wood sage all set in shining fern. Upon the boulders in midstream subaqueous mosses, now revealed and starved by the drought, died hard, and the seeds of grasses, figworts, and persicarias thrust up flower and foliage, flourishing in unwonted spots from which the next freshet would rudely tear them. 

Through these scenes the Teign rolled drowsily and with feeble pulses. Upon one bank rose the confines of Whiddon; on the other, abrupt, and interspersed with gulleys of shattered shale, ascended huge slopes whereon a whole summer of sunshine had scorched the heather to dry death. But fading purple still gleamed here and there in points and splashes, and the lesser furze, mingling therewith, scattered gold upon the tremendous acclivities even to the crown of fir-trees that towered remote and very blue upon the uplifted skyline. Swallows, with white breasts flashing, circled over the river, and while their elevation above the water appeared at times tremendous, the abrupt steepness of the gorge was such that the birds almost brushed the hillside with their wings. A sledge, laden with the timber of barked sapling oaks, creaked and jingled over the rough road beside the stream; a man called to his horses and a dog barked beside him; then they disappeared, and the spacious scene was again empty, save for its manifold wild life and music.”

 Reproduced by kind permission of The Royal Literary Fund

The Devon Line that never was: Exeter, Teign Valley, and Chagford Railway (Part three)

by Colin Burbidge

In the prospectus of August 1894, published in the Western Times of August 2nd, an agreement was outlined between the Great Western Railway and the directors of Exeter, Teign Valley & Chagford Railway. The GWR would agree to operate its rolling stock over the line between Exeter and Lea Cross for which it would charge 50% of the gross receipts of that line for both goods and passenger traffic. The GWR would give a ticket rebate of 10% between Bristol and Plymouth and 5% on the remainder of the GWR network. They would also allow free use of their Exeter station to the ETV&C railway.

Moretonhampstead in 2018

The GWR were not willing to operate on the Chagford branch of the line, because they argued, they already carried passengers to Chagford via their horse drawn GWR bus service between Moretonhampstead station and Chagford, and they were not prepared to jeopardise that arrangement.

The GWR were also making demands of both the Board of Directors and the contractors - Dicksons of London. The line from Exeter to Lea Cross was to be initially single track, however the GWR insisted that it be prepared as for double track running. The Board were required to purchase extra land to allow for a double track bed, any road bridge would need extra spans to cover a double track layout and the tunnels would need to be wider and higher, all of which would take Dicksons longer to accomplish.

 Exeter Chamber of Commerce took a close interest in the progress of the project, and on 5th December 1895 the Chairman, Mr.C.B. B. Sanders and Mr Mallett reported in the Western Times, on their visit to the site of the works.

“The line is proceeding very slowly, and the men working there considered that there was no need to think of a fresh job in their lifetime. Nothing more was required than the tangible support of the moneyed classes of Exeter”.

  In August 1896 Engineer Mr. Lidstone reported progress to the Board, part of which appeared on August 4th in the Western Times.

“At the Leigh Cross end about a mile and a half of heavy work has been completed. Considering the amount of work to be done at the Perridge tunnel, the Contractors deemed it advisable to concentrate on the completion of that part of the work.

Already 9 shafts have been sunk on the approached to the tunnel, and over 300 men have for some time been engaged in day and night shifts.

It is expected the hill will have been pierced within a few months, and until the tunnel is pierced the Company is precluded by its Act of Parliament from proceeding with the work on the Exeter side.”

To be continued ……….

The Devon Line that never was: Exeter, Teign Valley, and Chagford Railway (Part one)

by Colin Burbidge

After many false starts, Friday August 18th, 1894 saw the Royal Assent given to …

The formation of the Exeter, Teign Valley & Chagford Railway.

The London Stock Exchange announced that the company came into being with a capital of £240,000.  with the purpose of connecting the City of Exeter with the already extant Teign Valley Railway, the first 10 miles would connect with that line at Lea Cross and from there an 8-mile branch line would terminate at Chagford.

The Pepperpot Market House in the centre of Chagford (March 2019)

 The Valley of the Teign had long been known for its Mineral deposits, silver-lead ore, barytes, and Manganese. Owing to the cost of carriage by road, these works were closed. However, with the favourable conditions of bulk transport by rail they might soon be open again.

As reported in the Western Times in August 1894 the rail company has already had promises from Messrs William Easton & Co and the Teign Valley Barytes Mining Company of large loads of granite, macadam stone and barytes.

The Directors had appointed main contractors James & John Dickson of London, and the arrangement was that Dicksons would accept a cash payment of £30,000 and the balance would be in shares in the company. Such an arrangement gave the contractors the incentive to press on swiftly with the work, since until the line was carrying traffic, the shares were in essence worthless.

November 7th, 1894 was the date set for the ceremonial cutting of the 1st sod of turf. The event was followed in detail by the “Western Times” who informed their readers that Lady Northcote had been invited to do the honours. At 11.30am there would be a grand procession including the Band and a Company of the 1st Volunteer Regiment of the Devonshire’s, followed by the Directors, The Mayor, Sheriff, the Bishop of Exeter, and other worthies. In wet weather the procession ended in a large marquee in a field in Alphington Road near the GWR Railway bridge, the site of the new line, close to St. Thomas Station, Exeter.

The railway bridge of the Teign Valley line crossed Church Road (Alphington).

The cutting ceremony having been completed there was a special luncheon at the London Hotel, Exeter, followed by a gala football match between Exeter and Blundell’s School 1st XI and in the evening at the County Ground, despite more rain, a firework display provided by Messrs. James Paine & Sons of London.

Now began, not only the groundwork, but the negotiating with numerous landowners and local councils to purchase the land needed for the lines. In parallel, the initial £30,000 needed to be raised and large numbers of shares also required selling. In places like Dunsford, Chudleigh and Chagford enthusiastic public meetings were held to drum up support and encourage people to invest.

 To be continued……….

'Old Perrott' - A Chagford Worthy

by Colin Burbidge

James Perrott was born in the parish of Throwleigh in 1815. The family moved shortly after to Chagford, where he remained his entire life, until his death in 1895. According to Edward Barnwell’s Notes on the Perrott Family, he was from an ancient family of Norman ancestry.

 In 1839 he married Mary Harvey, they would go on to have four sons and three daughters. His wife’s family were descended from Sir Robert Jason, whose 1588 coat-of-arms James Perrott is said to have kept on the wall of his home.

 Census records show him as a wheelwright, and later three of his sons also as worked wheelwrights. It is not until the 1891 census that he is recorded as a Fishing tackle manufacturer. However, his son, Richard later recalled in an article in the Western Times that they would make fishing rods from old lancewood spokes salvaged from damaged or old coach wheels.

 James was for over 50 years a Dartmoor touring guide, a renown angler and a maker of fine fishing tackle and flies, such as Blue Grizzle, Red Palmer, Blue Upright and Red Maxwell.

In 1869 he joined the newly formed Upper Teign Fishing Association, chaired by the Earl of Devon and including many of the riparian landowners of the Upper Teign, including Rev. John Ingle, owner of St. Olaves, Murchington. Perrott carried out the role of water bailiff for them and supervised the care and condition of the river and its banks, in addition to selling Day Permits to anglers.

 He was a supreme angler and encouraged many a well-known client. The writer Charles Kingsley was a regular companion, as was novelist R.D. Blackmore who fictionalised Perrott in some of his novels, and he is also featured in Fisherman’s Fancies by F.B. Doveton. On their golden wedding in October 1889 Mr. & Mrs. Perrott received a congratulatory address from the townspeople of Chagford.

Upon the news of his death in May 1895 the editor of the Western Morning News launched into fulsome praise:

 “Rugged, frank and of cheery disposition, his sterling worth caused him to be respected by those who made his acquaintance. There was not a tor or hill to which he could not conduct his visitors, nor a stream in which he knew not the pools and stickles most likely to afford sport. A deft fisherman himself and entering keenly into the pleasures of the gentle art, he was always desirous that those who accompanied him should realise the delight of returning with a well filled creel”.

 In Chagford churchyard there is a polished granite tomb, erected to the memory of this Dartmoor worthy, by the Rev. A.G. Barker, one of Ingle’s successor’s as owner of St. Olaves, Murchington.

 His son, Richard carried on his father’s work as Dartmoor guide, expert angler, and tackle maker throughout a long life – he died aged 96 years.

 For a fuller account see Devon perspectives.