Caroline Wheal Prosper

Overview

A tin mine on Lambs Down and in Larkham Woods near Buckfastleigh, worked only from 1854 to 1857; despite a waterwheel, stamps, dressing floors and a long inclined tramway, it produced almost nothing, and more than £8,000 was lost on it.

History

Caroline Wheal Prosper was a tin mine near Buckfastleigh, on the south-eastern edge of Dartmoor, partly on Lambs Down, where its one known shaft, an openwork and an adit lie, and partly in Larkham Woods by the Dean Burn, where the dressing floors were. Its opening was announced in the Devonport Journal in April 1854 and the Mining Journal that June, on ground worked by 'old miners' hundreds of years before, with a two-foot lode nearly all tin. A 40-foot waterwheel was being set to work, with 24 heads of stamps to follow, and a second wheel came a year later.

Williams Shaft, named after the mine captain, William Vosper Williams, reached only 100 feet, though the plan shows it was meant to go to at least 500; of five lodes on the plan only one was developed. Even so the company built a wheelhouse, dressing floors, ancillary buildings and a 680-metre inclined tramway from the dressing floors to the shaft, with flat rods beside it. More than £8,000 was spent, with what was called remarkable recklessness, and the only output recorded is a sample of tin sold at Truro in June 1855. The mine worked for about three years, from 1854 to 1857. Its remains had never been studied until English Heritage surveyed the wooded site for the Dartmoor National Park Authority in 2004.

Geology

East-west tin lodes in the Dean Burn area, five shown on the mine plan, of which only one was developed; a lode two feet wide was reported in 1854.

Workings

Williams Shaft (100 feet), openworks and two adits, two waterwheels with stamps, dressing floors by the Dean Burn and a 680-metre inclined tramway with flat rods to the shaft.

Closure

Abandoned in 1857 after about three years with negligible output.

What remains

The shaft and an openwork lie on open ground on Lambs Down; the dressing floors and wheelhouse are in private woodland in Larkham Woods.

A ruined wheelhouse, dressing floors with ancillary buildings, the tramway incline, a leat, a wheelpit and a stamping-mill site, recorded in the 2004 survey.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• Caroline Wheal Prosper was an unsuccessful tin mine that worked from 1854 to 1857. ^1,2
• Williams Shaft was sunk to only 100 feet, though the mine plan shows it was intended to reach at least 500 feet. ¹
• A 680-metre inclined tramway with flat rods ran from the dressing floors to the shaft. ¹
• The only output recorded is a sample of tin sold at Truro in June 1855. ¹
• English Heritage surveyed the mine's remains for the Dartmoor National Park Authority in 2004. ^1,2

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Caroline Wheal Prosper (Dartmoor Explorations) — Dartmoor Explorations
2. (secondary) Caroline Wheal Prosper Tin Mine, Buckfastleigh, Devon (Historic England Archive, AF00143) — Historic England

Record created: 24 October 2026 · Last researched: 24 October 2026