MSO12346 - Possible 19th Century trial area for Blackland Mine, or post-medieval routeways west of Chibbet Ford (Monument)

The site is recorded as a trial area for Blackland Iron Mine, which operated in the late 19th Century. However, much of the earthwork features thought to support this interpretation may infact be a series of historic routeways.

"Old iron mine" printed on 1903 Ordnance Survey map. N.B. Can’t be seen on current HER copy of map. [1,8] This was a trial area for the Blackland Mine (MSO11725), now ploughed. [2] Aerial photography of the site shows a series of irregular quarried depressions and terracing along the western side of Pennycombe. The larger irregular depression west of Chibbet Ford (SS 8362 3757) is marked on historic Ordnance Survey mapping as a quarry [1,3]. There is also a short length of bank or wall noted. [3-6] The Tithe Map for Exford shows a trackway crossing the site, leaving the road to the northeast at SS 8359 3763 and taking a circuitous, S shaped route (presumably following the contours on the ground), passing through c. SS 8349 3761 and SS 8351 3753 before leaving the area at SS 8336 3743. While this routeway had been altered by the time the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map was surveyed, part of the route (at SS 8350 3754, about 75 metres in length) is shown as an earthwork cutting. On the 1st and 2nd Edition maps, the route being in the same place but appears to head slightly further to the west (SS 8347 3761) before turning south, passing through SS 8348 3753 before curving off to leave the area at SS 8335 3736. [1,3,7] It is noticeable that the earthworks transcribed by McDonnell [6] largely appear to replicate the routeways of the two trackways shown passing through the site on historic mapping [1,3,7]. It is therefore not clear whether these do represent mining remains or if the trial area for the mine [2] was actually sited elsewhere, perhaps to the east across Pennycombe Water (MEM23820). [8]