A collection of walks, discoveries, insights and pictures of exploring Dartmoor National Park
November 2, 2025
Powder Mills Gateway
The “Then and Now” pictures in this post are around 60 years apart and show the gate on the B3212 leading to Powder Mills. The changes here are not the most exciting but perhaps testament to the small subtle changes which take place across Dartmoor which we often forget about or indeed go un-noticed.
The photograph location of the gateway on an annotated 20th century map. Of course, little will have changed to the Powder Mills buildings (except perhaps their usage). Of note, is that once by the gate was a Telephone Repeater Station as can be seen on the map – one guesses this feature was either a very small building or a metal box like the ones used by communication companies in the 21st centuryThis photograph was taken by Arthur L. Clamp in the 1960s. It is interesting to note that the gateway appears very narrow (maybe this was the pedestrian access) and that the sign refers to Powder Mills as a farmOctober 2025 near to where the Telephone Repeater Station would have been. The modern sign to Powder Mills now refers to the ‘Pottery’On the north side of the road is the lovely ‘teapot’ sign with cut out pony head. The author believes this sign is at least 25 years old, although this is based on memory only.The gateway in 2025 appear very wide (enough for two cars). It is possible that it was widened after the 1960s. Does anyone reading this remember ?The right gatepost with a 4 or 5 course drystone wall. It is probable that this is where the original 1960s photograph was takenNow to try and line up where the 1960s photograph location was compared with a 2025 photographBy lining up the right (east) gatepost and the background (including Higher White Tor and the highest ‘Incorporating Mill’ at the Powder Mills gunpowder factory) this is where the author believes the original gate was. It is suspected that although the black and white photograph suggests the gate was narrow, it does have 12 slats / gaps which if say are 20cm (8 inches) between then the gate would have been 2.4m, which is wide enough for a car (but maybe not a tractor?). Can anyone add their thoughts?This view is of what are now collectively known as Powdermills Cottages. On 19th century maps these are labelled as Powder Mills Farmstead with four buildings which included a Cooperage, a Manager’s House with a garden at the front and a range of cottages to the west. Today, the properties include a pottery and a bunkhouse. An interesting entry in the publication by Mary Stanbrook, 1991, Old Dartmoor Schools Remembered, is that : “Some time after the opening in 1844 (of the Gunpowder Factory), the owners provided a chapel which doubled as a school for the community at Powder Mills. It is believed to have been the small building on the left (west) of the houses, and was recently a forge. It is known that 8 children were entered at Postbridge school in 1880, but the Mills school may have been closed earlier”.
