MSO8963 - Gupworthy Level (Monument)

"Gupworthy Level, disused" is marked on the 1962 6 inch map. [1] In 1846 a cornish entrepeneur named Smith Tibbits drove an adit at circa SS 96623508 in search of copper. The adit was abandoned before he found any ore but was taken on by his brother who found a substantial iron lode in 1849. [2] This mine was owned by the Brendon Hills Iron Ore Company, presumably an adit mine. There was a Tramway to the spoil heap. There are no documentary details as to its precise date. A miners cottage survives in good condition with roof and walls intact but apparently not inhabited. Other cottages comprising a row of about five or six small buildings are ruinous (MEM15331). The row is cut into the hillside. The rest of the site, including the actual level, tramway and adit is now under water, the valley having been dammed a little to the southwest. A drain has been dug through the garden of the surviving cottage which effectively cuts off the access to it. This drain then passes in front of the row of cottages and into the lake A trackway runs from Gupworthy Old Pit (MMO798) to the site, meandering down the hillside to run past the ruined church MSO8967. [3-6] The site is shown as disused on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map. [9] Field investigation confirms that the adit and any associated spoil has been submerged beneath a small lake which now occupies the valley floor. On the northern side of the lake are the traces of a row of cottages. A standing building at SS 9647 3510 is now a holiday cottage but was formerly part of the complex. [10] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [11]