Great Weeke Mine

Overview

A tin mine at Great Weeke near Chagford, worked in a great openwork and from Lydia's Shaft by the Great Week Consols company from 1887 to 1892 and by the Teign Valley companies until its plant was auctioned in 1903.

History

Great Weeke Mine worked tin on the north-east edge of Dartmoor, beside the hamlet of Great Weeke, east of Chagford. Its oldest working is a great openwork, 40 to 50 feet deep and over 900 feet long, that followed a lode north-west until it met a north-south lode; old shafts stand within it.

On 1 March 1887 the Great Week Consols Tin Mining Company was registered with £30,000 in £1 shares. It deepened the trial shaft, Lydia's, put up dressing floors, a water-wheel, hoists and a pump, and within the year had sunk to 28 fathoms with levels driven east and west. Reconstructed in 1889, it enlarged the sett from 210 to 700 acres, rebuilt the dressing floors with steam machinery, set a 25-inch steam engine to wind at Lydia's Shaft and laid a tramway to a loading bay on Kenslade Lane. Output still fell; by the end of 1890 seven men were employed, the lower levels were flooded and the four men below were working out old stopes at adit level. The mine was abandoned in 1892, having returned 56 tons of tin concentrate worth £3,367.

The Teign Valley Mining Company, formed in March 1896, drained it and drove the adit and 12-fathom level further west. Reconstructed in 1901 as the New Teign Valley Mining Company, it did little more, and in 1903 the County Court ordered the plant auctioned: two steam engines, winding gear, pump rods, 24 heads of stamps and two water-wheels. Hamilton Jenkin places a last working in 1904, with a small steam engine for hoisting at Lydia's Shaft.

Geology

Tin lodes in a stockwork worked by a large openwork, a north-west lode intersected by a north-south lode.

Workings

A medieval or early openwork 40 to 50 ft deep and over 900 ft long; Lydia's Shaft to 28 fathoms with an adit and a 12-fathom level, a 25-inch winding engine, water-wheel and flat-rod pumping, and a tramway to Kenslade Lane.

Closure

Abandoned in 1892 after returning 56 tons of tin concentrate; reworked by the Teign Valley companies from 1896, whose plant was auctioned by order of the County Court in 1903.

What remains

The openwork and Lydia's Shaft survive; the tramway and flat-rod lines have been ploughed out and the dressing floor built over.

The great openwork with old shafts, the leat that fed Lydia's Shaft, and the shaft itself.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• Hamilton Jenkin places the last working in 1904. (disputed) ¹

Recorded claims

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

• The Great Week Consols Tin Mining Company was registered on 1 March 1887 with a capital of £30,000. ¹
• Within its first year Lydia's Shaft was sunk to 28 fathoms, with levels east and west. ¹
• The mine was abandoned in 1892, having produced 56 tons of tin concentrate worth £3,367. ¹
• In 1903 the County Court ordered the New Teign Valley Mining Company's plant to be auctioned. ¹
• The mine's machinery included a water-powered wheel. ^1,2
• Hamilton Jenkin places the last working in 1904. (disputed) ¹

Sources

1. (secondary) Great Weeke Mine and other Tin workings to the east and north of Chagford (Dartmoor Explorations) — Dartmoor Explorations
2. (secondary) Great Week Consols (Mine), Chagford (Mills Archive) — The Mills Archive Trust

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