Information
- Distance: 4 miles, walked by Keith Ryan and transcribed by Simon Avery
- Grade: Medium
- A GPX route of this walk is available: Download GPX
- Directions to Car Park
- What Three Words
tasters.skylights.physical
Map
Introduction
This walk starts near the famous Warren House Inn and descends into the Redwater valley, home to many ancient tin workings and four distinct tin mines which were combined in 1845. This was a major industrial centre in the 18th and 19th centuries employing hundreds of people, and many ruins and reminders remain. The main route is firm and easy going, with a gentle hill on the final climb back to the car park.
Note: The track along the valley, although firm underfoot, is often very wet all year round. Sensible footwear recommended.
Do feel free to explore the area and leave our track - there are many points of interest, some of which we’ve marked on the map and all are worth exploring.
The Four Aces
From the parking, on a clear day, you can see three rock walled enclosures across the valley. Together with a fourth (see map, central), these are known as the “Four Aces” or “The Devil’s Playing Cards”.
Legend tells… Jan Reynolds was a tin miner from Widecombe who was more interested in drinking and gambling than in going to church on a Sunday. Finding himself short of money he made a deal with the Devil: in return for money to fund his gambling the Devil could have his soul if he was found asleep in church.
Jan soon forgot the pact and one Sunday he fell asleep while playing cards in church. There was a sound of horses’ hooves outside, and a flash of lightning so fierce that it tore off the top of the church tower, then the Devil strode into the church and snatched up the terrified miner, carrying him up into the sky and across the moor. Jan had four aces in his hand and he dropped them in what is now known as the Aces Field.
One can quite clearly see a diamond shape, but it taxes the imagination to see the shape of a Heart, a Club and a Spade in these fields.
The reality of these enclosures is that they were either to keep rabbits in or rabbits out. The farm just over the hill to the Easy is Headland Warren Farm, which was known to breed rabbits which formed a large part of the miner’s diet. I’m unclear whether the rabbits were kept in these enclosures, or they were built for growing crops which needed protecting.
Take the path Eastwards into the valley for about half a mile
Vitifer Mine
Also known as Vityfer
Many of the paths in this area are formed of growan - decomposed granite - which makes for good walking.
This area contains the remains of four distinct mines:
- Vitifer (Prev: Vytifer) Mine
- Birch Tor Mine
- Easy Birch Tor Mine (AKA Headland Mine)
- Golden Dagger Mine.
Vitifer and Birch Tor were separate mines originally, then combined, then separated, and then combined again. Naming of these two seems interchangeable, with both workings being known by both names.
The chimney was between the blacksmith’s shop and the miners’ dry - and the wall of the carpenter’s shop at extreme left, with Challacombe Down behind.
The flue here runs underneath and heated what was the “Miner’s dry” - a place where miners would hang their clothes, soaked from working underground in dripping and partially flooded adits and stopes.
A fireplace or boiler would have been placed at the far end of the flue, and the smoke run through it to the chimney, which released it high enough not to bother those at ground level.
The turbine house does not appear in the 1904 OS map, so was likely built after that.
These mines were powered mostly by water, by the Birch Tor and Vitifer Mine Leat which travelled for 7 miles.
Large waterwheels were used here for pumping out water, raising ore from shafts and driving the crushing stamps.
Smaller waterwheels were used for other work, such as driving the “sweeps” that swept the crushed ore on the buddles at the lower edge of the workings.
Golden Dagger Mine
This mine was named after a bronze dagger was found here from the early men who lived here four thousand years ago.
The dagger was taken to Plymouth Museum, and rumoured to have been destroyed during World War 2 bombing of that building.
A replica dagger is owned by DNPA and can sometimes be seen at their information centres and displays.
This area was mined for Tin from at least the fifteenth century via surface streaming.
Mines were dug to chase tin further underground from around the 1750s. Given the amount of surface water in this area, one imagines these were very wet mines and hard to keep dewatered.
The underground workings ended in 1914 when many men were drafted for the First World War. Some surface working remained until 1939 when again, the needs of war took labour away from the moors.
Dinah’s House
This building was so named because Dinah Hext and her children lived here in 1860s and 1870s, having moved a short way up the valley from Challacombe.
“CEH 1832” in cement on lower side, southern end of the house. It was also apparently once a dormitory (Called a “barracks”) and meeting place for miners.
Engine House
- Center: Petter Engine (The Lister-Petter company is still in business today)
- Gas Engine (Extreme Right)
- Gas producing plant (center distant)
- A Magnetic Separator was left of the camera
- A winter turbine generator was right of the camera
- A summer generator was beyond the Petter Engine
Buddle
A buddle is a simple structure to separate material out by its density.
Fine sediment is introduced at the centre point by trough or pipe in suspension with water. As it flows towards the outer edge, heavier material is deposited first.
Some buddles are assisted by rotary brushes.
Once sufficient sediment has built up, it is shovelled out with the “headings” containing the more valuable minerals in the centre, and the less valuable or waste known as “tailings” towards the edge.
This one is known to have been fed by a slurry onto the cone by a small leat arrangement and swept by a waterwheel-driven “wood and rags sweeps”
This is the far point of our walk - we must return along the same track and view the workings from a different angle
Parking
There is hard parking at the given coordinates which lead directly into our walk.
References
- Dartefacts
- Dartmoor Trust Archive
- Heritage Gateway - Birch Tor and Vitifer Mines - Golden Dagger Mine
Old Maps
Some of the old maps showing the layout of these mines in busier times.