This walk: 2010-11-17. Shaugh Bridge drying sheds, River Plym, River Meavy, new 2010 footbridge, movies of the rivers, Shaugh Brick Works, Ferro-Ceramic Company, Brogden-Caspar Tunnel Kiln, exposed tree bole, iron mine adit, Dewerstone Quarry, Count House, embankment, bridge pier, Urgles Cross, sunken lane, quarry brake drum gear, inclined plane, railway granite setts with nails and nail holes, crane base, The Pixie, iron mine, Common Polypody.
Walk details - Information about the route etc.
Shaugh Bridge Drying Sheds - china clay flowed two-miles in a suspended slurry in a pipe from near Cadover Bridge to settling pits and then to be dried out here between 1895 and 1950. This area was cleared from its overgrown condition in 2009 by Dartmoor Preservation Association .....
One of the loading bays: the clay was dried by heat from fires in kilns - the workers had to wear wooden clogs. The clay was transferred to the railway at Shaugh Platform.
View of the River Plym in spate after a night of very heavy rain .....
River Plym .....
| Dartmoor CAM movie
The River Plym in full spate ..... zooming in and out again. Be prepared for the sound of a rushing torrent after a night of heavy rain that caused floods in mid-Cornwall at St Austell, Lostwithiel etc.!
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Click the photo to download File size: 3 MB. Time to download: e.g. 5 secs Length 27 secs |
Looking down the Plym to Shaugh Bridge. The River Meavy can be seen joining the Plym at this point, from the right.
The new footbridge over the River Plym .....
Another view .....
And from a little way down the Plym, towards the road bridge .....
Opened 14 November 2010.
A different view .....
| Dartmoor CAM movie
The River Plym in full spate ..... panning across to the confluence with the River Meavy and back again.
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Click the photo to download File size: 3 MB. Time to download: e.g. 13 secs Length 43 secs |
Looking across the confluence point of the two rivers: the Plym is nearest and the Meavy is coming from the other side of the spit of land between the two rivers.
A photo of the very disturbed water .....
And again .....
A side stream around a small island that is probably not normally an island.
Car park sign .....
In more detail.
Back to the confluence .....
Standing at the point where the two rivers come together, the Plym from the left and the Meavy from the right.
In more detail - the water level is much higher than normal.
Shaugh Brick Works, the Ferro-Ceramic Company Ltd. - a brief late 19th Century venture that used poor-quality iron ore from the nearby Dewerstone Iron Mine and by-products from the china clay drying works. It featured a modern linear drying kiln - the Brogden-Caspar Tunnel Kiln that dried, fired and cooled in one operation, as featured originally in British Bricks Monthly, now reprinted in the British Brick Society Information, 1995, page 9, The Ferro-Ceramic Company - this is a slow-loading web site. Tip: Click on 00000009 (= page 9) in the left column to see the article that continues to page 15, with details of the patent and drawings of the type of kiln.
arct.cam.ac.uk/personal-page/james/bbs/bbs_64.pdf - then add www. to try the web site, the link was broken in July 2013.
As previous photo .....
A closer view ..... the horizontal grooves housed the edges of the wagons carrying the bricks through the kiln. The passing of time since the venture was abandoned is marked by the quite sizable tree trunk that is now rotting in the middle of the kiln.
And again.
A feature at one end of the kiln, possibly for storage or loading onto wagons?
An amazing sight - two nearby trees holding onto life "by their fingertips"!
A closer view of one of the trees, with the whole bole exposed. Considering the weight of the tree, the roots must have a firm grip on the soil!
Adit from the iron mine .....
Closer view - grilled to prevent entry.
A reminder of how the Meavy was flowing today.
And again .....
| Dartmoor CAM movie
The River Meavy in full spate ..... the shapes of rushing water ..... do NOT fall in .....
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Click the photo to download File size: 2 MB. Time to download: e.g. 13 secs Length 14 secs |
An open area in the wood.
A view up the path - running with water.
Looking down on the Meavy .....
Zoomed view.
"Dewerstone Cottage" on the map: the old Dewerstone Granite Quarry Count House i.e. offices, later a scout hut - the quarry was a venture from the 1850s that closed in 1870, after building trackways for getting the granite out and an abortive attempt to join up with the main Marshmills-Tavistock GWR railway line nearby. Permission to build a bridge across the Meavy was refused by the landowner.
Addendum: "Dewerstone Cottage was the counting house, stables and smithy for the granite railway system. Two quarries, two hundred foot above the cottage were connected by a narrow gauge track."
Source: Callington U3A Newsletter - December 2009, page 3.
Walking down from the Count House to the river again .....
An impressive tree bole.
Out into the open again .....
Passing an embankment built to connect with the GWR as part of the quarry venture .....
Passing through the embankment .....
Following the old track, looking one way .....
And the other direction .....
The pier across the River Meavy where the bridge was to be built but never was .....
The end of the horse-drawn track on its embankment, opposite the pier for the bridge.
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