A collection of walks, discoveries, insights and pictures of exploring Dartmoor National Park
December 28, 2024
Deep Swincombe
Virtually all Dartmoor valleys containing rivers and their tributaries have traces of the endeavours of tinners’ who were in search of their precious ore. Deep Swincombe valley, to the south west of the small hamlet of Hexworthy is no exception. It has a large area of medieval or later streamworks covering an area of 1.3 hectares.
As part of the exploits of the tinners’ , they constructed huts (sometimes called lodges) for shelter, caches for storage of their tools and specialist buildings called mills for crushing and smelting the tin. With the specialist buildings came leats and water wheels (for power) and granite mortar and mould stones. That said, what the tinners’ left (and those who may have latterly re-used their buildings), has lead researchers of the late 19th century and 20th century to different levels of interpretation and lack of total consensus
An exploration of the Deep Swincombe valley provides an insight into some of the typical tinner artefacts such as a Tinners’ Hut and a Cache but moreover also tells a story of a lack of consensus by researchers over a ‘specialist building’ known as Pig’s House. The building has been annotated by Ordnance Survey for over 130 years as being a Blowing House (or Mill) but the evidence to support this is limited at best.
The author invites those reading this post to consider all the possibilities of what the purpose of these structures may have been.
Bibliography
Dr Tom Greeves (1981) – List of Doubtful Devon Tin Mills c1450-c1750, No 51 (Un-published). SDV336693
Helen Harris (1968) – Industrial Archaeology of Dartmoor, 61, 206 (Monograph). SDV149229.
Sabine Baring-Gould (1900) – A Book of Dartmoor, 114-117 (Monograph). SDV277387.
Worth, R. H., 1940, Notes on some Dartmoor Blowing Houses, 205-206 (Article in Serial). SDV218987.
Royal Commission for the Historical Monuments of England (1993-1998), Dartmoor Royal Forest Project, Simon Probert (Report – Survey). SDV346608.
Eric Hemery (1983) – High Dartmoor (page 351)
Mike Brown (1993) – Gazetteer of Dartmoor Names
Dartmoor Tinworking Research Group – Newsletters 56 (May 2019) and 61 (November 2021)
Sketch map of Deep Swincombe Valley showing the locations of the key features of interestLight Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) Plot of Deep SwincombeEasy access to upper reaches of Deep Swincombe can be achieved from the small roadside car park on the Hexworthy to Sherbeton road, then head south along an old drift lane known as Moor Tongue (ref: Mike Brown – Dartmoor Gazetteer). Shortly after entering open moor, the Wheal Emma Leat is crossed via the 6 impost clapper before the scar of Deep Swincombe comes into view. The Wheal Emma leat was cut in 1859, taking water off the River Swincombe at near Whiteworks before running a sinuous course to join the River Mardle, thus augmenting the supply of water serving Wheal Emma copper mine, West Buckfastleigh. The mine worked along with Brookwood as South Devon United Mines throughout the later 19th century (ref Helen Harris)To the south of Wheal Emma Leat the valley of Deep Swincombe coming into view from the west. There are a number of scattered rocks in the areaGroup of (un-named) rocks en-route to the upper reaches of Deep SwincombeLooking down (south to north) Deep Swincombe from its upper reaches.The upper reaches of Deep SwincombeDescending into the upper reaches of Deep Swincombe to explore the tin streaming and tinners’ associated artefactsThe sheltered valley floor of Deep Swincombe. A few trees surviving by virtue of the relatively sheltered locationClose to the stream within Deep Swincombe a Tinners’ Cache can be located. Robert Burnard recorded a cache in this area describing it thus : “….a large granite boulder, one end resting on sloping ground, the other on a dwarf wall. Space enclosed is 0.6m. Probably a Tinners Cache for metal tools”. Robert Burnard was an eminent writer / photographer and established the Dartmoor Preservation Association (DPA) in 1883 and one assumes it was this cache he recorded over 100 years agoInterestingly the Royal Commission for the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME), in the Dartmoor Royal Forest Project survey (1993-98) stated : “There are several unconvincing hollows under boulders in the locality but no Tinners Cache was identified”. The location of the supposed (Burnard) Cache is SX64403 71747One way to look for more evidence as to if this is a Tinners’ Cache is to look insideThe ‘corbelling’ inside suggest this feature is a Tinners’ Cache. It’s dimensions are consistent with those recorded by Burnard.Contextual view of the Tinners’ Cache looking down Deep Swincombe. After Burnard’s record of this possible site of a medieval or later Tinners’ Cache it was further documented in 1948 by Richard Hansford Worth. The Devon Historic Environment Record, comments that field investigations in 1977 by Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division as well as those by the RCHME in 1995 located no evidence for the structure.A short distance from the Tinners’ Cache there are workings which consist of upcast dumps of discarded gravel and small stone together with evidence for cutting into stream banks to get at the tin-bearing groundThis small structure lies just under 50m from the Tinners’ Cache. It is not recorded on the Devon Historic Environment Record or the Dartmoor Tinworking Research Group (DTRG) database of Tinners’ Huts, therefore the exact use of the structure must be in doubtThe structure is only a few metres long and barely 1.5m wide, which perhaps suggests this might have been just a crude shelter and not used as a typical Tinners’ Hut. It could easily shelter two menThe structure does appear to have a probable entrance which is located at the west end. The walls are between 0.5m and 1mThe ‘small’ Tinners’ Hut is located at SX64357 71742. The contextual view of the hut looking south ‘up’ Deep SwincombeJust over 200 metres from the small Tinners’ Hut is a structure which is known locally as ‘Pig’s House’. It is marked on Ordnance Survey Maps as being a Blowing House. It is located at SX64233 71905The Pig’s House structure is rectangular measuring 5.5 metres by 3.1 metres internally with a possible entrance (foreground in the foreground) in the northwest corner. The walls comprise coursed boulder revetments up to 1.4m high and there is traces of a possible central sub division. The lack of a leat and an obvious wheel pit, however, casts some doubt on this being a Blowing HouseSabine Baring-Gould (of the Dartmoor Explorations Committee) in 1900, in his ‘A Book of Dartmoor, page 115 provides a plan of the ‘Blowing House’ at Deep Swincombe. Interestingly he identifies “on one side was a furnace, constructed of granite, one slab set upright to form a side and the back and side built up crudely”. Without the essential water power, the Baring-Gould interpretation is open to doubt, albeit him describing it as “…the earliest tin-furnace yet discovered on Dartmoor….”. Hansford Worth (in 1940) recorded that : “There is no evidence of a smelting place”. He discounted Baring-Gould’s observations stating he (Baring-Gould) “…..mentions and describes a ‘furnace base’, but this I have never seen nor is it mentioned by Burnard”. A few metres to the south of Pig’s House is this earth bound trough (mould stone?). A sketch of this trough is shown on page 117 in Sabine Baring Gould’s ‘A Book of Dartmoor’, and is described as being “….quite different in shape from any others found on the moor”. The Baring-Gould measurements of the trough were confirmed by Worth in 1940 with the exception that Baring-Gould suggested the ‘mould’ was a uniform 5in deep whereas it slopes quite considerablyTaking into account the slope within the trough, the approx volume is 288 cubic inches, which if filled with tin would have weighed 213lbs. The author may have made a mistake in his calculations as Worth stated the ingot would have been around 166lbs. Tin ingots of the medieval period tin ingots of that period were uniform in shape and would have been around 100lbs. With this trough being located outside the ‘Blowing House’, it being earthfast and the fact any tin ingot would have been the wrong shape and weight, casts extreme doubt that this stone was anything other than a trough. That said, why would a trough be needed as a stream is located just a few metres away. Perhaps it is located in what was once an animal enclosure. Eric Hemery, in High Dartmoor, suggests that Pig’s House was latterly used by a herdsmanContextual view of the tough looking east to the walling on the edge of Deep Swincombe. The stream is located between the trough and the drystone wallContextual view of the tough looking south (up) Deep SwincombeIn the south west corner of Pig’s House is a hollow leading to a hidden cache, which runs the full width of the building. Only the RCHME have speculated that this rectangular hollow might have been and internal wheelpit with the water exiting via the break in the NW corner of the building.The large rectangular hollow measures 1.4m N to S by 0.7mInside the cache which is accessed by the aforementioned rectangular hollow. Worth called this a ‘cache’ and suggested it might have been a late addition or alteration to the building. Baring-Gould also recorded this as a ‘cache’ with it being the thickness of the wall being a place to store the metal and tools.The entrance to Pig’s HouseHemery mentions there being a stone lying near the doorway which has the appearance of a broken mould, albeit it is very shallow. Baring-Gould mentions a fragment of the receptacle for the molten tin was found with a receiver and channel cut in it. Is the piece of granite in the photograph the same as the one mentioned by Hemery and Baring-Gould? The stone was partly buried and had a bit of ‘gardening’ applied to it in order for this picture to be taken.If this stone truly was truly used by the tinners’, then it adds some confusion adding and deepening the mystery surrounding the building’s original purpose. The whole Pig’s House structure is banked up with rubble and turf. Worth summarises : “A tinner’s hut or store it may well have been, but certainly not a blowing house”. Baring-Gould recorded that some pottery was found in house and submitted to the British Museum by Sir Wollaston Franks. The pottery was said to have been attributed to the Celtic period but for the bold scores made at the starting point of a handle, which would have made it more characteristic of Anglo-Saxon period. Dr Tom Greeves speculates that the large body sherd from the site may well be from a chafing dish.With the building being constructed out of a heap of tinners waste, it is difficult to place it in a specific category, if it is not a Blowing House. The Dartmoor Tinworking Research Group (Newsletter 56 – May 2019) have recorded it as Tinners’ Hut ’91’ under the category ‘variable’, namely those examples which have unusual characteristics. Pig’s House is located at SX64235 71908A final contextual view of Pig’s House looking south into Deep Swincombe. A final note of interest regarding the structure is from Dr Tom Greeves, (1981) taken from List of Doubtful Devon Tin Mills c1450-c1750, No 51, where it is simply stated that it is an: “Unusual building with chamber in one wall and a trough which has been claimed as a mould stone. Status of site suspect”The stream in Deep Swincombe near Pig’s HouseLeaving Deep Swincombe, the Wheal Emma Leat is encountered as it makes a hairpin bend as it crosses the valleyThe Wheal Emma Leat channel is quite deep at this locationTo the north west where Wheal Emma Leat crosses Deep Swincombe is a single slabbed clapperA short distance from the first clapper is another – the slab being slightly widerThe second clapper looking back to Deep Swincombe
