Whiddon Mine (Whiddon and Brownshill Mine), Ashburton, Teignbridge, Devon, England, UKi

Regional Level Types
Whiddon Mine (Whiddon and Brownshill Mine)	Mine (Abandoned)
Ashburton	Civil Parish
Teignbridge	District
Devon	County
England	Constituent Country
UK	Country

A tin, copper and manganese(?) mine. The dressing floors are at the bottom of the valley alongside the main stream, with an adit just upslope. A series of (5) shafts and (2) adits then trends eastward up the hill, all much overgrown. December 2003.

Shown as Widdon Smelting House, Tin and Copper Mine on Donn's 1765 map of Devon. Worked on various occasions in the 18th & 19th centuries, the mine was reopened again in 1845 and continued until 1851, when it was put up for sale.

Arrangements to rework the set as Whiddon and Brownshill Mine in 1859 and test the lodes below adit appear to have been unsuccessful as only small-scale working was in evidence in 1870, with nothing below adit.

The site of the adit, dressing floors and water wheel shown on the Ordnance Survey 1:2500 from 1886 to 1975 has now been landscaped as a garden though the end of a wall can be seen over the hedge in a location that would be consistent with the wheel pit. Furthermore the shafts and adits apparent in 2003 on the slope above and adjacent to the public footpath have now been completely grown over.

In the field further up the hillside an area of dug over ground has grown an open woodland. A large tip associated with a shallow depression, presumably a shaft, has been partly excavated revealing iron coated stones, some with a powdery yellow coat and others with black manganese. This would be the horseshoe shaped tip shown on the 1975 OS map, though no shaft is marked on the OS map and Dines omits a mention of a shaft here so maybe this was a dressing floor and the surface depression is coincidental.

The dug over ground continues for at least 100m up the slope through the woodland. There is however another depression probably the shaft shown as the large circle and small inner circle on the 1975 map. The small tip is a mix of black shale, buff coloured sandstone and thinly bedded pale mudstone with black bands highly reminiscent of the rock seen in the manganese mines around Milton Abbot, Chillaton and Quither 20 miles away to the west of Dartmoor. (Having just referred to the description in Dines it says "There is no evidence of manganese ore although on analogy with the Milton Abbot area, west of Dartmoor, the country rocks here are favourable to the deposition of manganese.") Taking measurements from Dines this would be the first of the shafts he notes and the description of the tip would agree.

Further up through the wood almost to the crest of the hill is large tip and shaft, the 2nd shown on the 1975 map towards the south-east of the mine. The tip is comprised almost exclusively of black shale fragments with no indication of mineralisation. The shaft is however open, protected only by a collapsed stock fence and it is very deep, Dines says 54 fathoms and I have no trouble believing it is clear at least to adit which would be around 35 fathoms.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

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