The Haytor Granite Tramway (also called Heytor
) was a tramway built to convey
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
from
Haytor
Haytor, also known as Haytor Rocks, Hay Tor, or occasionally Hey Tor, is a granite tor on the eastern edge of Dartmoor in the English county of Devon.
Location
The tor is at grid reference , near the village of Haytor Vale in the parish of Ils ...
Down,
Dartmoor
Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers .
The granite which forms the uplands dates from the Carboniferous ...
,
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
to the
Stover Canal
The Stover Canal is a canal located in Devon, England. It was opened in 1792 and served the ball clay industry until it closed in the early 1940s. Today it is derelict, but the Stover Canal Society is aiming to restore it and reopen it to naviga ...
. It was very unusual in that the track was formed of granite sections, shaped to guide the wheels of
horse-drawn wagons.
It was built in 1820; the granite was in demand in the developing cities of England as masonry to construct public buildings and bridges. In 1850 the quarries employed about 100 men but by 1858 they had closed due to the availability of cheaper
Cornish granite.
The Haytor rocks and quarries are protected from development and disturbance as a
Site of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...
.
Operation and purpose
![050715 043 uk dev quarry](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/050715_043_uk_dev_quarry.jpg)
The granite from the quarries near Haytor Rock was much in demand for construction work in the cities of England, but in an era when railways and reliable roads had not yet been developed, the transport of this heavy and bulky commodity was a significant problem. Coastal shipping was a practicable transport medium, and the
Stover Canal
The Stover Canal is a canal located in Devon, England. It was opened in 1792 and served the ball clay industry until it closed in the early 1940s. Today it is derelict, but the Stover Canal Society is aiming to restore it and reopen it to naviga ...
was available from Ventiford to the Teign Navigation.
The Haytor Tramway was constructed to carry the granite the to the canal, which involved a falling vertical interval of to the basin of the Stover Canal. Its form was a close relative of a
plateway
A plateway is an early kind of railway, tramway or wagonway, where the rails are made from cast iron. They were mainly used for about 50 years up to 1830, though some continued later.
Plateways consisted of "L"-shaped rails, where the flange o ...
, where longitudinal L-shaped metal plates were used to support and guide the wheels of wagons. In the Haytor case, the "plates" were cut from granite blocks. The blocks were from to long and about square.
The outer surface of the blocks was cut away to make the track leaving an upstand which guided the wheels of the wagons. The track was laid with the upstand inside the wheels, and the gauge is measured across the two faces of the upstand.
The track surface averaged in width but could be up to .
As the wagons had plain wheels without flanges, they could be manouevred at the terminals without the need for sidings and points.
![Haytor rails 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Haytor_rails_2.jpg)
The gauge of the track was but varied by up to ,
and at junctions the wheels were guided by 'point tongues', pivoted on the granite-block rails. Authorities differ on whether the point tongues were oak or iron. In the upward direction, the empty tram wagons were pulled to the quarries by teams of horses; the loaded trams were run downhill by gravity to the Stover Canal basin at Ventiford,
Teigngrace
Teigngrace is a civil parish centred on a hamlet that lies about two miles north of the town of Newton Abbot in Devon, England. According to the 2001 census, its population was 235, compared to 190 a century earlier. The western boundary of the p ...
.
The route was carefully engineered to follow a consistent downward gradient to the canal basin, following the contours of the land (although one of the upper branches had a contrary gradient, requiring horse draught in the loaded direction). A siding at
Manaton
Manaton is a village situated to the southeast of Dartmoor National Park, Devon, England.
The 15th-century church, located in a prominent spot due north of the village green, is dedicated to St Winifred. Three of the six bells in its tower are ...
Road may have been used to allow trains to pass when meeting in opposing directions.
![Haytor rails 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Haytor_rails_1.jpg)
The Stover Canal had been built between 1790 and 1792
by
James II Templer (1748–1813) of
Stover House
Stover House, also known as Fort Stover, is a historic home located near Luray, Page County, Virginia. It is dated to the late-18th century, and is a two-story, three-bay, rubble stone structure with a traditional Flurkuchenhaus plan. It has a ...
,
Teigngrace
Teigngrace is a civil parish centred on a hamlet that lies about two miles north of the town of Newton Abbot in Devon, England. According to the 2001 census, its population was 235, compared to 190 a century earlier. The western boundary of the p ...
, for the clay traffic, and was extended to Teigngrace in 1820.
From here the granite was carried by canal boat to the New Quay at
Teignmouth
Teignmouth ( ) is a seaside town, fishing port and civil parish in the English county of Devon. It is situated on the north bank of the estuary mouth of the River Teign, about 12 miles south of Exeter. The town had a population of 14,749 at the ...
for export by ship, the quay having been built in 1827 for the purpose, making midstream
transshipment
Transshipment, trans-shipment or transhipment is the shipment of goods or containers to an intermediate destination, then to another destination.
One possible reason for transshipment is to change the means of transport during the journey (e.g. ...
no longer necessary.
In 1829, due to financial difficulties, James Templer's son
George Templer
George Templer (1781 – 12 December 1843) was a landowner in Devon, England, and the builder of the Haytor Granite Tramway. His father was the second James Templer (1748–1813) who had built the Stover Canal.
He inherited the Stover estate ...
(1781–1843) sold Stover House, the Stover Canal and the Haytor Granite Tramway to
Edward St Maur, 11th Duke of Somerset
Edward Adolphus St Maur, 11th Duke of Somerset (24 February 1775 – 15 August 1855), styled Lord Seymour until 1793, of Maiden Bradley in Wiltshire and Stover House, Teigngrace, Devon, was a British landowner and amateur mathematician.
Biogr ...
(1775–1855), whose family had long owned the nearby large
Berry Pomeroy Castle
Berry Pomeroy Castle, a Tudor mansion within the walls of an earlier castle, is near the village of Berry Pomeroy, in South Devon, England. It was built in the late 15th century by the Pomeroy family which had held the land since the 11th centur ...
Estate. George Templer left Devon, only to return a few years later and build a new mansion at Sandford Orleigh on the outskirts of
Newton Abbot
Newton Abbot is a market town and civil parish on the River Teign in the Teignbridge District of Devon, England. Its 2011 population of 24,029 was estimated to reach 26,655 in 2019. It grew rapidly in the Victorian era as the home of the Sou ...
. He became the granite company's chief Devonshire agent.
The wooden flat-topped waggons had iron flangeless wheels and ran in trains of usually twelve waggons drawn by around 18 horses in single file, in front for the upward journey and at the rear for the downward.
An old sailor called Thomas Taverner wrote a poem which gives us this information:
Nineteen stout horses it was known,
From Holwell Quarry drew the stone,
And mounted on twelve-wheeled car
'Twas safely brought from Holwell Tor.
The vehicles used were probably adapted road waggons and were about long, with a wheelbase of . The wheels were in diameter with a tread, and were loose on the axles. The twelve-wheeled reference in the poem above means 'twelve waggons with wheels'.
Stover House itself, then the home of the Templer family, had been constructed of Haytor granite in 1781. Granite's popularity as a building material was increasing and the reason for the quarry and tramway's creation was most likely a contract for George Templer to use the stone for
London Bridge
Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and steel. It r ...
. Part of the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
, the old
General Post Office
The General Post Office (GPO) was the state postal system and telecommunications carrier of the United Kingdom until 1969. Before the Acts of Union 1707, it was the postal system of the Kingdom of England, established by Charles II in 1660. ...
in London and the Waltham Monument in
Ludgate Circus
Ludgate Circus is a road junction in the City of London where Farringdon Street/New Bridge Street (the A201) crosses Fleet Street/Ludgate Hill. (Ludgate Hill is a gentle rise to St Paul's Cathedral.)
Fleet Street was the only direct road betwe ...
were built of Haytor granite in the 19th century. The last use of Haytor quarried granite was the building of the
Exeter War Memorial
Exeter War Memorial, also known as The Northernhay War Memorial is a war memorial in Northernhay Gardens in the city of Exeter, Devon. Designed by John Angel, it was erected by public subscription in 1923 and cost over £6,000.
History
At th ...
.
The splitting of the granite was done by a method known as
feather and tare, which had replaced the former 'wedge and groove' method around 1800; this more reliable method being another reason why the use of granite had become practicable. The new method worked by means of a series of holes was made along a potential line of fracture using a tool called a 'jumper'. ''Feathers'' were metal prongs with a curved upper end. Two of these were inserted into the holes, the curves in opposite directions at 90 degrees to the line of potential fracture. A wedge-shaped metal ''tare'' was hammered between the two until the granite fractured.
The granite trade was always somewhat sporadic with fluctuating production and indeed no granite was produced or transported between 1841 and 1851 and the quarries and tramway had closed by 1858. Several thousands of tons of granite had been quarried some years, but competition from Cornish granite quarries with cheaper transport put paid to the business and the tramway fell into neglect, however its robust construction and low recyclable value meant that it was never lifted and much has survived the passage of time.
Thomas
claims that there were proposals in about 1905 to lay an electric tramway along the route as a tourist attraction, but this scheme failed to mature.
Construction
![Richard Trevithick railway (England)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Richard_Trevithick_railway_%28England%29.jpg)
The
tramway was built in 1820 without an Act of Parliament
and opened on 16 September 1820, but the consulting engineer is unknown, although George Templer of Stover House owned the quarries and was no doubt responsible.
A contemporary description of the official opening shows the extent of the achievement:
On Saturday Mr. Templer, of Stover House, gave a grand fete champetre on Haytor Down, on the completion of the granite rail road. The company assembled at its foot on Bovey Heathfield, and in procession passed over it to the rock. A long string of carriages, filled with elegant and beautiful females, multitudes of horsemen, workmen on foot, the wagons covered with laurels and waving streamers, formed in their windings through the valley, an attractive scene to spectators on the adjacent hill. Old Haytor seemed alive: its sides were lined with groups of persons, and on its top a proud flag fluttered in the wind. Previously to returning to dine, Mr Templer addressed the assemblage in a short and energetic speech, which excited bursts of applause...
A later description listed some of the dignitaries who attended:
Among the company were Lord and Lady Clifford of Ugbrooke
Ugbrooke House is a stately home in the parish of Chudleigh, Devon, England, situated in a valley between Exeter and Newton Abbot. The home of the Clifford family, the house and grounds are available for guided tours in summer and as an event ...
; Mr. Bastard from Buckland; Sir Thomas Dycke Acland; Sir Henry Carew came from Haccombe
Haccombe is a hamlet, former parish and historic manor in Devon, situated 2 1/2 miles east of Newton Abbot, in the south of the county. It is possibly the smallest parish in England, and was said in 1810 to be remarkable for containing only two ...
; and Sir Lawrence Palk from Haldon
The Haldon Hills, usually known simply as Haldon, is a ridge of high ground in Devon, England. It is situated between the River Exe and the River Teign and runs northwards from Teignmouth, on the coast, for about until it dwindles away north ...
, beside many other county magnates from other parts.
![Teignmouthquay1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Teignmouthquay1.jpg)
The construction is exceedingly unusual, the closest possibly being the
Weedon Stoneway in Northamptonshire of 1837 which was built at great expense as a mail coach route by the Turnpike Commissioners who were in competition with the newly constructed
London & Birmingham Railway. The only other comparable tramway known to exist was a very short 3 ft gauge limestone line at
Conisbrough
Conisbrough () is a town within the City of Doncaster, in South Yorkshire, England. It is roughly midway between Doncaster and Rotherham, and is built alongside the River Don at . It has a ward population (Conisbrough and Denaby) of 14,333.
...
, near
Doncaster
Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...
.
The tramway itself was built out of the granite it would carry and ran from the Haytor quarries to Ventiford Quay on the Stover Canal.
At first, it was about long, but it was later extended to about or including the various sidings.
The hard granite stone was well-suited to the purpose as it can withstand high pressures and was laid in lieu of iron rails. The tramway had a mainline running down to the Stover canal and six branches or sidings running from the separate quarries. The sidings were altered several times during the existence of the line and track was often lifted and used elsewhere as circumstances demanded. Various minor and one substantial cutting, small embankments and a few short bridges exist along the length of the line. Owing to the nature of the 'rails' large parts of the old tramway still exist, especially in the area near Haytor itself.
Route
![Templer transport map](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Templer_transport_map.svg)
Carrington
in the late 1820s relates how the rail-road can be used as a route, for pedestrians or those on horseback, from Haytor to Teigngrace, making the point that a tramway usually differs from a
railway
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
by effectively being part of a road and also that the frequency of the granite traffic was usually low and slow moving, so passage along the route by the public on foot or horseback would not have been particularly hazardous. It may be that pedestrians and riders were asked to
pay a toll as on the
Kilmarnock and Troon Railway
The Kilmarnock and Troon Railway was an early railway line in Ayrshire, Scotland. It was constructed to bring coal from pits around Kilmarnock to coastal shipping at Troon Harbour, and passengers were carried.
It opened in 1812, and was the f ...
in
Ayrshire
Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of Re ...
, Scotland.
Milestone
A milestone is a numbered marker placed on a route such as a road, railway line, canal or boundary. They can indicate the distance to towns, cities, and other places or landmarks; or they can give their position on the route relative to so ...
s were erected, marking distances from Ventiford. Passengers were never carried and the milestones may have been a whim on behalf of George Templer. The four surviving stones, classified by the Milestone Society, are detailed below:
Granite seems to have been the only traffic carried as the company was reluctant to go to the expense of building high-sided waggons or trucks for iron ore transportation.
When the
Moretonhampstead and South Devon Railway
The Moretonhampstead and South Devon Railway was a broad gauge railway which linked the South Devon Railway at Newton Abbot railway station with (in the town of Bovey Tracey), and , Devon, England.
History
In 1861 the Moretonhampstead an ...
was opened in 1866, the tramway had been disused since 1858; however the land owner, the
Duke of Somerset
Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are rank ...
, insisted that a siding and a crane should be built and new interchange sidings made at the 'Bovey Granite Siding', south of Bovey Tracey, although it was probably never used.
A mile of the old tramway route had been taken over for the new line.
The 1831 map of Devonshire by Fisher, Son & Co. depicts the course of the tramway and erroneously shows it running directly down to the Teign without the Stover canal being in existence. A map of Devon of about 1865 shows the course of the line.
The Templer Way
This is a route which follows closely the route of the Haytor Granite Tramway and the Stover Canal, continuing to the New Quay in Teignmouth docks. A good place to see the track is where it crosses a minor road which leads to Manaton, just off the Haytor to Bovey Tracey road.
Once off the moor the place to see the track at its best is a small section of the tramway running through
Yarner Wood. There is also a well-made five-mile (8 km) marker stone. The granite track sections can be followed through the woods before the pathway diverts back onto the main Bovey Tracey road. The tramway cuts across fields down to the road which runs beside the Edgemoor Hotel and a few track setts lie scattered on the lawn of this hotel, but no clear line of the track can be distinguished. Chapple Bridge was the only bridge on the tramway, crossing the Bovey
leat
A leat (; also lete or leet, or millstream) is the name, common in the south and west of England and in Wales, for an artificial watercourse or aqueduct dug into the ground, especially one supplying water to a watermill or its mill pond. Other ...
, until the opening of the second quarry at Holwell Tor. Ventiford Cottages were built to house employees who worked on the tramway and canal, although some lived in a collection of small houses clustered around the inn which lay below Haytor Rocks.
Stables were also maintained here for the horses that worked the canal and the railway. Granite setts can clearly be seen in the construction of bridges on the route of the Templer Waybridge.
A previously-unknown section of the tramway at its terminus at Ventiford Basin was discovered in late 2014.
See also
*
British quarrying and mining narrow gauge railways
Some industrial narrow-gauge railways in the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man were primarily built to serve quarrying, mining, and similar industries. Some of these narrow-gauge railways offered passenger services for employees or workme ...
*
Ilsington
Ilsington is a village and civil parish situated on the eastern edge of Dartmoor, Devon, England. It is one of the largest parishes in the county, and includes the villages of Ilsington, Haytor Vale, Liverton and South Knighton. The parish is s ...
*
List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Devon
This is a list of the Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) in Devon, England, United Kingdom. Natural England formerly English Nature is responsible for designating SSSIs in England, and chooses sites because of their fauna, flora, geolog ...
*
Auchincruive Waggonway
The Auchincruive Waggonway or Whitletts Waggonway was a mineral railway or 'Bogey line' that transported mainly coal, eventually running from the north side of Ayr harbour at Newton to Blackhouse, Whitletts, Dalmilling, Gibbsyard, Auchincruive ...
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
External links
History of the Stover Canal, Stover Canal SocietyAncient Monuments Register (under Ilsington Parish).RCAHMS Canmore archaeology site
{{coord, 50, 35, 11, N, 3, 45, 56, W, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title
Dartmoor
Tram transport in England
Mining in Devon
Rail transport in Devon
Horse-drawn railways
Historic trails and roads in the United Kingdom
4 ft 3 in gauge railways in England
Railway lines opened in 1820
Railway lines closed in 1858
Granite
Industrial archaeological sites in Devon