Swelltor (Swell Tor) Quarries is a group of granite workings on the western edge of Dartmoor near Princetown, made up of several separate pits including Crip Tor, Sailor's Home, Swell Tor Upper and Lower, and King's Tor. The site was leased in September 1820 to William Johnson and a partner named Brice, and later formed part of the wider Johnson & Brice quarrying business that also worked neighbouring Foggintor. Stone was carried out first by the horse-drawn Plymouth & Dartmoor Railway from 1823, and later by the steam-worked Princetown branch after 1883. Quarrying continued here into the twentieth century before the site finally closed in 1938.
Swelltor is best known today for around 650 granite corbels cut in 1903-04 under a lease then held by Pethick & Co. of Plymouth, for the widening of Rennie's 1831 London Bridge. Twelve of the corbels were rejected and never shipped. Surviving accounts give two possible reasons, cut slightly short of specification, or stained with iron, but do not agree on a single cause. The twelve corbels remain on site beside the disused trackbed, one of Dartmoor's more unusual industrial relics.
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“Pixies, too, hold a high place in the imaginations of Devonians. The villagers around Haldon and Dartmoor assert that these little people have their homes among the tors, and keep their houses spotlessly clean ; that they enjoy mad gallops at night on colts, making stirrups in their manes and ...”
Also on Our DartmoorStanding Stone — A solitary standing stone on open moorland, marking ancient presence on the high plateaus of Dartmoor.
Dartmoor quizPhotograph by Glavind Strachan Photography
Which Dartmoor tor is on the left hand side of this photo?
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Plate from A Book of Dartmoor, page 185, 1900