South Tamar Consols (South Tamar Mine; Cowes Mine; incl. Cleave Mine; Birch Mine), Bere Alston Mines, Bere Ferrers, West Devon, Devon, England, UKi

Regional Level Types
South Tamar Consols (South Tamar Mine; Cowes Mine; incl. Cleave Mine; Birch Mine)	Mine
Bere Alston Mines	Group of Mines
Bere Ferrers	Civil Parish
West Devon	Borough
Devon	County
England	Constituent Country
UK	Country

Worked in the early 1800s the silver content at South Tamar ran at 40 to 90oz to the ton.

In 1820 a merger linked South Tamar, South Hooe and Tamar Valley Mines as Bere Alston Mines, but in 1821 the whole was offered for sale.

South Tamar was reopened in 1846 and within a year Cowie’s Shaft was 90 fathoms deep and was worked 1/2 mile under the river in the lower levels. In 1851 output rose to 80 tons in December and in 1854 all levels were producing well.

On 31st august 1856 the river broke in to the mine through a clay filled fault and the lower levels were immediately flooded. Fortunately the ingress took place on a Sunday when the mine was deserted and there was no loss of life. For some time a number of schemes were proposed to recover the mine and the broken ore lying in the lower levels. It is said that Isambard Kingdom Brunnel was called to the mine from work on the Saltash Albert Railway Bridge. But in December the mine was abandoned without hope of restarting (A.K. Hamilton Jenkin).

Engine shaft is sunk to a depth of 146-fm on the 15 degree east underlie. The majority of the work extends to the south. Glynn’s shaft is 100 yards of Engine and connects at the 70, 80 & 90-fm levels.

The silver content is said to have been 80-120oz per ton in the upper levels down to 35-40oz pre ton in the lower levels.

Recorded output as South Tamar Consols are 1849-60 7140 tons of 64% lead ore and 350 tons fluorspar. In 1852-60 262470oz silver (Dines H.G. 1956)

There is a tip under the electricity lines on the river bank (2 samples of galena collected from here did not test positive for silver content greater than 0.05%) and another in the field a little to the north. There is a further tip and a chimney beside the road further north again at Cotts. This is right on the boundary between the South Tamar and Furzehill setts.

A shallow shaft of about 20 feet (SX435644) gives access to a low adit meandering in a north-westerly direction. The adit is flooded along the entire length to a depth of about 2 feet. At about 50m the adit crosses another shaft which is not apparently open to surface. Thereafter the adit constricts and ends after 10m in a collapse.
Jan 2005

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References