The Brendon Hills are a range of hills in western Somerset, England. The hills merge level into the eastern side of Exmoor and are included within the Exmoor National Park. Iron ore and other minerals have been extracted for industrial purposes, primarily by the Brendon Hills Iron Ore Company in the later half of the 19th century.
Geology The Brendon Hills are largely formed from the Morte Slates, a thick faulted and folded sequence of Devonian age sedimentary rocks. An east-west aligned anticline/syncline pair known as the Brendon Anticline and Brendon Syncline folds these rocks. The fold couplet is itself offset by displacement of the rocks on the NNW-SSE aligned Timberscombe Fault System. Over the centuries they have been mined for minerals, notably ironstone from which iron is extracted for making steel.
History Where lodes of iron ore reached the surface they were worked using bell pits from Roman times.
19th century In the mid-nineteenth century, the proprietors of the Ebbw Vale Iron Works acquired an interest in iron ore deposits in the Brendon Hills. Iron ore had been known there for centuries but not exploited industrially until the Brendon Hills Iron Ore Company was formed in 1853. Initially goethite/hematite was extracted and later unoxidised siderite.
At an altitude of over and remote from usable roads, the company needed a form of transport to get the ore to South Wales. The West Somerset Mineral Railway, which included a long gravity worked incline on a gradient of 1 in 4, was built to take the ore to Watchet Harbour where it was loaded onto ships to be sent to Ebbw Vale for smelting. At Burrow Farm Mine a Cornish beam engine was installed around 1868 to pump water out of the mine. The mines provided employment for an average of 245 people between 1873 and 1882. Accommodation was also built for the mine workers.
Though sometimes productive, no nineteenth century iron mine on the Brendon Hills was profitable and the venture as a whole was financially ruinous. From 1852 to 1883 a little over three quarters of a million tons of usable ore was delivered to Ebbw Vale, each ton costing the company £1.25 to produce and deliver for which it received 75p. Net losses amounted to £762,000. Furthermore, the industry as a whole was prone to boom and bust, with a sharp decline from the early 1880s acting as the coup-de-grace. In 1907 another venture, the Somerset Mineral Syndicate, leased the railway and resumed mining.
Several of the structures associated with the mines can still be seen. These include the ironstone mine ventilation flue in Chargot Wood, and the remains of the Carnarvon New Pit.
Individual mines Many mines have been recorded on the hills. The following operated at various times between 1837 and 1909.
Baker's pit This mine is sometimes referred to as "Baker's mine" or simply "Bakers". Primarily aimed at Manganese, this pit was served by a siding off the West Somerset Mineral Railway (WSMR). It was an early pit latterly developed and briefly productive in iron ore in the years 1881–2, but it closed in May 1883. Scant evidence remains that the pit ever existed.
Bearland Wood mine
The first adit was started at this iron mine in 1854, aiming to work towards Gupworthy. Little ore was found and working had ceased by 1864. Later that year the Mines Captain, Morgan Morgans, decided to drive a new adit, which proved very successful, yielding 12000 tons of brown Haematite which was taken to Langham Hill pit by an incline operated by horse powered whims. The ore was loaded on to WSMR wagons at Langham Hill. This incline was abandoned in 1866–7 when Bearland Wood mine was joined underground with Langham Hill pit.
Mines on the tops of hills are usually sunk from above, with adits for drainage or access driven laterally to the hillside from the ore, coal or other target mineral. Bearland Wood mine was worked the other way round, with vertical working following lateral boring.
Bearland Wood faced the universal mining problem of ventilation in a way which was both very old and radically new. Most industrial age mines were drained and ventilated using pumps, typically powered by steam engines. Morgans equipped Bearland Wood with a ventilation flue where a chimney stack was built above the mine's upward shaft and a coal-fired furnace was placed at the foot of the chimney. The furnace sucked air from the mine shaft which sucked fresh air from the lateral adit in turn. The air flow was guided by wooden ducts so that it always passed through areas where men worked. Miners extended or redirected the ducts as the working faces moved. This method long predated steam pumps, but as Morgans was erecting it at Bearland Wood the Mines Inspector at Risca Colliery (near where Morgans had been a colliery manager) declared steam pumps to be unsatisfactory and ordered their older ventilation furnaces to be reinstated. The ventilation flue at Bearland Wood is a scheduled monument. Its conservation was supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Betsy mine This iron mine was served by a siding off the WSMR, it is sometimes referred to as "New Langham Mine". It was the last new mine in the area when it opened around 1875. It closed in 1883. Almost no trace remains of the mine's existence.
Blackland mine This iron mine was operated independently of the Ebbw Vale Company near Withypool, west of the Brendon Hills. It operated from about 1875 to 1881 then briefly in 1895, leaving a large bank of ore stockpiled on site. In 1907 a Withypool mining company started transporting ore by traction engine to Minehead to be shipped north, but this ended in October. The Somerset Mineral Syndicate added this to their portfolio of Colton and Timwood and built a rope worked incline powered by a stationary engine to lower ore to the road. The workings were prospected but the ore sent to Minehead was almost all from the stockpile.
Burrow Farm mine
This iron mine was served by a siding off the WSMR. It closed around 1868. The shell of its engine house, which was moved lock, stock and barrel from Langham Hill mine, stands today, the ore field's only engine house to do so.
Carew mine Sinking the shaft of this iron mine may have started in 1865. The last ore appears to have been raised in 1871. A photograph shows that ore from Carew was handled separately by the WSMR so that charges and income could be allocated accordingly. When the mine was surveyed in 1883 the shaft was flooded. Carew's ore was a target for the 1907 venture at Timwood Tunnel, but that venture failed before any ore was reached. All that can be seen in modern times is a small disturbance on the surface near a car park.
Carnarvon new pit This iron mine was served by a siding off the WSMR, on the opposite side of the line from Carnarvon Old Pit. It opened in 1866 and initially yielded good ore in quantity, but it closed in 1882. The ruins of the buildings have now been scheduled as an ancient monument. Carnarvon and Raleigh's Cross mines were both very wet. Complex interlocking drainage and flood prevention features were installed.
Carnarvon old pit This iron mine was next to the WSMR, on the opposite side from Carnarvon New Pit. It is sometimes referred to as "Old Carnarvon Pit". It closed in the early 1860s.
Colton mine This iron mine is sometimes referred to as "Coltonpits" and occasionally as "Colton Pits".
There is evidence of ancient mining at Colton, with the main site visible on maps just over 3 km ENE of . The site was investigated in 1847, but throughout the period up to 1875 when the WSMR was flourishing Colton mine was described as "insignificant", though in the early 1880s, just as the whole Brendon venture was on the point of collapse, output was increasing and an extra siding on the WSMR was sought but not started.
When the Somerset Mineral Syndicate Ltd attempted to resurrect mining and the WSMR from 1907 to 1910 it reopened Colton mine, but entered it through what had been a drainage adit in Galloping Bottom, some distance north west and downhill of the original workings. This location meant that whilst underground costs might have been reduced, it was difficult to get the ore to the WSMR. The original idea was to build an aerial ropeway, but a wholly new gauge tramway was built instead. This incorporated a incline to get the ore up to the top of the hill, followed by a two-mile run (including a timber viaduct) to where the ore was tipped into standard gauge wagons which were lowered down the larger incline then hauled to Watchet harbour.
The aim of developing Colton mine was to give an income until the Syndicate's main hope - Timwood - started to produce, but output was disappointing (a mere 4800 tons of ore was raised in 1908-10) and what ore was produced caked furnaces and proved almost unsaleable. In desperation the Syndicate erected plant at Washford to turn the poor ore into briquettes, thereby reducing volume, mass and impurities, but the undercapitalised venture failed in 1909 and all mining ceased, including Colton. The Syndicate voted to be wound up on 24 March 1910 and its assets were auctioned off on 28 June that year. in modern times only the faintest traces of the workings, incline and narrow gauge railway can be detected.
Eisen Hill mine Eisen Hill is named "Ison Hill" on OS maps and sometimes "Eyson Hill" elsewhere.
This iron mine opened in 1854 and stuttered to an end by 1877, with patchy result between. The mine was in soft ground which warranted different mining techniques. The company had a powder magazine and three cottages near the mine, one of which was used as the mine offices. The WSMR took the first steps towards seeking powers to extend their line from (where at least some Eisen Hill output was transferred to their rails) to Joyce's Cleeve to tap their product, but its poor prospects and their financial straits led them to back off. No buildings survive.
Elworthy Mine This iron mine is sometimes referred to as "Yeanon" or "Yennan". A trial shaft was sunk in 1875 and, whilst seven levels were developed, little ore was found. In Jones' words it "never amounted to much." It had closed by 1883. A Liverpool syndicate investigated the mine in 1907, employing around a dozen men, but nothing came of it. Only a small mound remains to suggest any workings ever took place.
Gupworthy new pit Digging started on this iron mine in 1871. In 1879 it closed with its neighbours, but was one of the few which reopened later that year, reaching its maximum depth of in November 1882, only to close with the rest of the orefield in June 1883. The WSMR built a branch to serve the pit, with a siding to bring coal to the engine house. By 2011 no visible trace of the pit remained.
Gupworthy old pit In 1863–4, the WSMR built is western extension through this iron mine's pit yard, which rivalled that at Raleigh Cross in size. It had been taken over and revived in 1852 and was said in the mid-1850s to have "good ore in workable quantities" which significantly exceeded pre-railway haulage capacity, leading to stockpiles. In the area's mid-1870s "peak years" the principal contributors were Raleigh's Cross mine and Gupworthy old pit. It closed with its neighbours in 1879, being one of the few which re-opened later that year. The mine reached its maximum depth of in October 1881, closing with its neighbours in June 1883. On closure machinery was brought to the surface and the mine allowed to flood. Some plant was returned to South Wales, most eventually went for scrap. Closing the mine gave the WSMR an additional problem, as the only water crane south of the incline was fed from Gupworthy Old pit. The crane and header tank were moved to Brendon Hill.
Gupworthy old pit had a permanent engine house, where a boy was killed in an explosion in November 1881. The miners' cottages were referred to as "The Square".