A10 Tamar Valley Mining District with Tavistock

Nans Tamar & Tavistock

Nature and industry entwined

Set in a National Landscape (a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), the Tamar Valley encompasses a breathtaking landscape that is as diverse as it is historically important.

Stretching from the high granite ridge and exposed moors of Kit Hill in Cornwall to the lush, deep wooded valleys of the meandering River Tamar – and the farming lands of the Devon plateau beyond – the Area spans the border between Cornwall and Devon. In today’s tranquillity, it’s hard to imagine the noise from over 100 mines that operated at the height of its mining boom.

Tin, copper, silver-lead, and arsenic were all mined here. In places, engine houses and associated buildings are well preserved; elsewhere you’ll glimpse an occasional chimney or fragment of walling emerging through the trees.

Tavistock itself is unlike any other town within the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site. The dramatic remodelling of much of the medieval town by the 7th Duke of Bedford during the mid-19th century was achieved with profits from his mines, whilst a substantial proportion of the mining workforce was housed in model cottages built within the town, at the mines and across his estate.

There is also an exceptional mineral transport network here: you’ll find an unparalleled group of industrial mineral river quays (e.g. Morwellham), a mine railway, (which served Devon Great Consols), a mineral railway (East Cornwall Mineral Railway) and a mineral canal (Tavistock Canal). The Area also has numerous mine quays, mule tracks and mine roads, many of which have now been opened up as multi-use trails for visitors.