MDE8266 - Post-medieval adit above Wild Pear Beach (Monument)

SS 5822 4770. One of 5 adits or shafts indicated by Claughton as having been sunk, reopened or worked in the 19th Century. [1] SS 5822 4769. The Ordnance Survey [2] depicts a linear mound about 35 metres long oriented north-north-east to south-south-west with the remains of an apparent spoil heap at its southern end, 30 metres to the north of the bottom of the footpath descending to Wild Pear Beach. The linear mound is shown as a gulley on the 1904 map [3]. Claughton [1] indicates the site of an adit, now lost, on Wheel Path Lode at SS 5819 4767 [4], fifteen feet above Wild Pear Beach. It is probably associated with silver lead workings of the West Challacombe Mine sett. (MDE8262). The linear mound, or gulley, and spoil heap were presumably workings associated with this adit. Today there is no trace of any of these features, and it is assumed that they have disappeared with coastal erosion as the cliffs are very unstable here. [5] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [6]