Devon Burra Burra

Overview

A copper venture on Whitchurch Down near Tavistock, begun in 1851 as Wheal Gatepost after a copper-stained gatepost was found there and renamed after South Australia's Burra Burra mine.

History

In June 1851 a gatepost impregnated with copper was found on Whitchurch Down, and the find set off a speculation fever in the district. A company called Wheal Gatepost was formed, and within a few weeks that summer its trenches had cut a number of lodes and found workings of the ancients. A shaft was sunk to 8 fathoms.

In September 1851 the gatepost itself was sent to London, hangings and all, for publicity, followed by blocks of ore holding 30 per cent copper. The Mining Journal supported a claim that the Main Lode of Devon Great Consols ran through the sett, and about this time the venture was renamed Devon Burra Burra, after the famous South Australian mine. Its beginnings inspired the formation of Wheal Surprise along the Taviton Brook to the south, where work started in October 1851.

The workings lay north of the Taviton Brook. An engine house stood beside Engine Shaft, and a line of flat rods ran from it to New Shaft, further up the hill to the north-east near Longford, east of Moorshop Cross.

Geology

Copper lodes in the metamorphosed Devonian and Carboniferous beds that surround the Dartmoor granite; in 1851 the Mining Journal held that the Main Lode of Devon Great Consols ran through the sett.

Workings

Trenches across several lodes, a first shaft sunk to 8 fathoms, and an Engine Shaft with an engine house, linked by flat rods to New Shaft up the hill to the north-east.

What remains

Two overgrown areas of disturbed ground north of the Taviton Brook, marked as gravel pits on 19th-century maps, are taken to be its shafts.

Overgrown hollows north of the Taviton Brook, thought to be Engine Shaft and a fourth shaft.

Related mines

• Wheal Surprise — Wheal Surprise was formed in October 1851 in the wake of Devon Burra Burra's promotion, and worked the ground south of the Taviton Brook as Devon Burra Burra worked the north.

Recorded claims

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

• In June 1851 a gatepost impregnated with copper was found on Whitchurch Down, and a company called Wheal Gatepost was formed. ¹
• The mine was renamed Devon Burra Burra after the South Australian Burra Burra mine. ¹
• In 1851 blocks of ore containing 30 per cent copper were sent to London for publicity. ¹
• Devon Burra Burra worked copper ore; its abandonment plan survives in two sheets. ^1,2

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Copper Mines (and other features) in Whitchurch Down area: Old Surprise, Wheal Surprise and Devon Burra Burra — Dartmoor Explorations
2. (primary) Mine plan: Devon Burra Burra (copper ore, sheet 1 of 2) — British Geological Survey (Mining Remediation Authority mine plans catalogue)

Record created: 25 October 2026 · Last researched: 2 November 2026