Stories and memories come in many shapes and this one is from a letter sent to the Voices Project by Roger Burton well-known Exmoor heritage author and North Devon mining expert. Roger gave generously of his time and knowledge to the Hoar Oak Cottage Voices Project and after one meet up Roger got in touch and as he describes in his letter below, “the conversation triggered off something in the back of my mind concerning a mine and mining within the close proximity of Hoar Oak (in the mid-1850’s) which I had written up for the Exmoor Mine Research Group newsletter in July 2004.”
There is a long history of mining on Exmoor – well told elsewhere in books such The Heritage of Exmoor by Roger Burton; The Reclamation of the Exmoor Forest by Orwin and Sellick; The West Somerset Mineral Railway by Sellick to name but three. However, this story starts with Roger reviewing letters from the Knight family estate which had been deposited in the Somerset Records Office in Taunton.
For the Knights, there was a strong desire to find other sources of income from Exmoor and mining was clearly considered a good option to pursue. This little collection of notes made by Roger Burton from estate managers’ letters from the Knight family collection relate to their attempts to resurrect an old mine at Hoar Oak which had already been used and abandoned by the 1850s. A letter dated January 9th, 1856 states that:
“The mines at Hoar Oak have difficult ground to encounter but we are in hope of cutting the lode very shortly, the old lode has been cleared and the lode looks remarkably well. Vellacott* has cut through the lode which is showing it at the angle where Comer made his rapid turn to the east and it is 7’ to 8’ thick in clay, but has not seen any small stones of iron.”
Read more about the Vellacott family and their association with Hoar Oak Cottage here.
The next report is dated January 12th, 1856 and mentions that “Captain Morcambe and Trelease (Combe Martin Mine Captains) were at Hoar Oak yesterday. They were pleased with the appearance of the neighbourhood. The first cut old level is an unfortunate affair; it is run in again and some of the timber has given way. I have decided upon adopting the new level so far as it has been driven and then carry on a new level on the lode which is running north of Comers first or old level. The upper level is still going through hard ground; it will take many fathoms to reach the upper clays.”
By January 17th, 1856 it is being recorded that “They can’t take the timbers out of the first level; we are driving on north side without any timber” and on January 23rd that “The new level going well and 6 ft deeper than the old one” and on February 4th that “The Hoar Oak Miners driving new level at the Old Works the first one had nearly run together so no one could reach the end.” On February 12th it is reported that “The men are almost at the end” and by February 23rd that “Hoar Oak has reached old lode and there they well made a cross-cut to old mind workings.”
A sketch of the mine workings at Hoar Oak – included in a letter dated February 23rd 1856 – was included by Roger Burton in his notes to the Friends. Although perhaps not very clear to us, it was no doubt very clear to the Mine Captains of 1856 what was being portrayed.
As mentioned on the sketch, the approximate location of the Hoar Oak Mine is at SS744 431 which puts it on the west side of the Hoar Oak Water and about 500 metres south of Hoar Oak Cottage. Its intriguing to consider how much noise and disruption this mine would have caused the occupants of Hoar Oak Cottage. Its not easy to pin down who was likely to be living at the cottage during the years of mining but it spans the 1850s which covers the occupation of the Moule family, John Vellacott and then Mr Taylor. It is entirely possible that the cottage – owned at that time by the Vellacotts and used to house their shepherds – may well have lain empty during this flurry of mining work. It may have even been used to billet the miners in. But if it was occupied by one of the shepherd families did the miners and other workmen benefit from cups of tea from the shepherd’s wife? Maybe even a hot meal now and then? Or were they just a nuisance to the Hoar Oak occupants trying to get on with their lives as sheep farmers and agricultural workers? The letter from Roger Burton, including his notes taken in the Somerset Records Office, does actually mentions that ‘Vellacott had cut through the lode’ so perhaps one of the Vellacott family were actively trying to encourage this mining enterprise by doing some preliminary work for the Knights to establish the old mine at Hoar Oak could be made viable. It would have been a much richer source of income than simple sheep farming. The extract from the old map below – Ordnance Survey Maps – National Library of Scotland (nls.uk) – shows the site of the mining works identified by ‘iron workings’, ‘adits’, ‘spoil heaps’ etc below Gammon’s Corner.
On February 23rd 1856, it is recorded that “Hannay visited Hoar Oak and was pleased with clays and ores in the sample room. Lode of clay and ironstone is 5 ft wide.” Roger Burton tells us that this Hannay is almost certainly from Schneider and Hannay and a quick Google search shows them to be an active mining concern, Schneider, Hannay & Co, in the mid-1800s. Burton also notes that the Hoar Oak Mine formed part of the sett* leased to Schneider and Hannay on the April 3rd, 1856 but there is no evidence that that mining company ever actually worked the Hoar Oak mine and that, in fact, all previous work there had been carried out by employees from the Exmoor Estate. Perhaps that is where the ‘Vellacott’ referred to comes in.
* A ‘mining sett’ is a legal term – traditionally used in Devon and Cornwall – referring to land exploited for mining.
On March 29th, 1856 it is recorded that there were “4 men driving at Hoar Oak Upper level” and on April 14th, 1856 a final note says “Hoar Oak works stopped.” Roger Burton completes his letter to the Friends of Hoar Oak Cottage by saying: “It is obvious from the reports on the mine at Hoar Oak that mining had been carried out there in earlier times but, of that earlier mining, there is no record.”
The records of the Exmoor Mining Research Group – in which Roger Burton often published his researches – were lodged in the Somerset Records Office in 2014 and the Friends are planning to spend some time looking through them to try and find a few more gems of information to share about mining at Hoar Oak Cottage. On this link it is possible to find a further bibliography and searchable database of mines on Exmoor. A recent research project, more on this link, jointly delivered by Universities of Exeter and Plymouth, has investigated, amongst other things, the impact of Knight and his mining exploits on Exmoor and it is hoped this research will be made public soon.
