Taw River tin blowing mill near Tawcroft

Historic England's scheduling record (list entry 1019228) describes a tin blowing mill at the foot of a steep scarp beside the River Taw. The building is of drystone with walls up to 1.4 metres high and measures 9.5 metres by up to 4.7 metres inside, entered by a clear doorway in the north-west corner. In the east part two edge-set stones mark the furnace where black tin (cassiterite) was smelted. A recess in the east wall is the wheelpit, where a wheel driven by water from the nearby leat worked the bellows. It lies across the parishes of Belstone and South Tawton, about 0.5 km south-west of Ladybrook Tor and 1.6 km south of Belstone.

The leat can be followed to a small reservoir on top of the scarp just south of the mill, 12.8 metres by 5.5 metres and up to 0.3 metres deep. Water left the wheelpit by a tailrace to the river, a clear channel with substantial banks on both sides. West of the tailrace a level area is the dressing floor, and at its north end a horseshoe-shaped hollow may be a buddle or similar apparatus. Fragments of tin slag have been found just east of the mill.

Sources: Historic England list entry 1019228, which cites Greeves and Robinson, Taw River Tin Blowing Mill, SX 62059197 (1985), and their unpublished plan.

• Status: Scheduled monument (Historic England list entry 1019228)
• Grid reference: SX 6204 9198 (approximate, from the listing's coordinates)