Exmoor has small, scattered seams of mineral ores which have
been mined sporadically for centuries.
The productive silver
mines at Combe Martin were worked on and off for 600 years,
closing finally in the 1880s. During the second half of the 19th
century mining for copper and iron ore was intensified around
Heasley Mill and Simonsbath but with little long term success.
Rich seams of iron ore on the Brendons were mined intensively
from 1853 to 1878. The West Somerset Mineral Line was built
to carry the ore to Watchet for shipping to South Wales.
Settlements for the miners at Brendon Hill and Gupworthy
sprang up but were deserted when the mines closed.
You can see mMine workings, railway buildings and trackway,
Beulah Chapel ST 027 343.
Sites to visit include Burrow Farm Engine House ST 007 345 and Wheal Eliza SS 785 381.
No mining is carried out in the National Park area at the moment but remains of old workings can be seen in many places.
‘Investigations have proved the existence of a series of parallel *lodes running approximately E-W. The *dip of the lodes varies from 40° to 60° South, and various experts’ estimates have computed the volumes of ore at many millions of tons. Shafts have proved the existence of continuous *lenticular lodes of high quality *haematite ore’.
This 1909 ‘Description of the Brendon Hills iron ore Mines’ given to the South Wales Institute of Engineers indicates the general arrangement of the mineral-bearing lodes of the Exmoor area which clearly follow the geological structure. They extend from the Brendon Hills to south west of Simonsbath. Unfortunately the iron ore was not in continuous seams but in lens-shaped masses connected by clay or quartz-filled fissures.
The main period of their exploitation was in the second half of the 19th century, with a maximum annual output of 46,000 tons from the Brendon Hill Mines in 1877. Some remaining structures together with old photographs give an idea of what the mines and the West Somerset Mineral railway built to serve them were like.
Mines near North Molton yielded copper as well as iron ores, with smaller amounts of the ores of lead, zinc, antimony, manganese - and gold! These minerals entered the Exmoor rocks about 300 million years ago following an upthrust of molten rock caused by the collision of the crustal plates. They crystallised from hot vapours or solutions pushed out of the main mass of molten rock which cooled to form the granites of Dartmoor and Cornwall.
Silver-lead workings at Combe Martin are recorded from the 13th century when Edward I’s daughter, Eleanor, received a dowry of 270 lbs of Combe Martin silver. In the reign of Elizabeth I a new, highly profitable, silver lode was worked and in the 19th century several brooches of Combe Martin silver were bought by Queen Victoria.
Although most of the mining activity finished towards the end of the century as workings became uneconomical, occasional operations on the Brendons didn’t end until 1910. Renewed investigations during the First and Second World Wars proved to be of no long term economic value.
In 1954 Exmoor became a National Park. Any new attempts at mining would be resisted by the National Park Authority because of possible ill-effects on the beauty of the scenery and on noise, traffic and pollution levels. However exploration for minerals has continued, particularly in the North Molton and Combe Martin areas, and uranium has been discovered near Simonsbath. There has been concern about the possibility of pollution from potential oil exploration in the Bristol Channel.
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