Morwellham quay has an interesting history, but I do wonder just how much longer it will continue as a tourist attraction. Its strange when you get there, you drive through it to a carpark, then pay to walk back where you just drove your car.
The HistoryMorwellham Quay is a historic river port in Devon, England that developed to support the local mines. The port had its peak in the Victorian era and is now run as a tourist attraction. It is the terminus of the Tavistock Canal, and has its own copper mine.
It was originally set up by the Benedictine monks of Tavistock Abbey, which was founded in 961, to carry goods to and from Plymouth on the River Tamar, since the River Tavy was unnavigable. By the 12th century, tin ore was being transported through the quay, followed by lead and silver ores in the 13th century.
Later, copper deposits were also discovered at the Quay itself and the George and Charlotte Mine opened in the 18th century. In addition, by 1800, manganese deposits were being extracted from the northern and western edges of Dartmoor and being brought to Morwellham.
By the end of the 18th century, the trail of pack horses across the rugged terrain was too much, and in 1817 the 4.5 mile long Tavistock Canal was opened. The canal included a 1.5 mile tunnel which ended 237 feet above the quay at Morwellham. From here an inclined plane was constructed to bring the iron barges down to the quay, powered by a water wheel.
The heyday for Morwellham Quay came when the largest and richest copper deposits ever were discovered at the Devon Great Consols just 4 miles to the north in 1844. £1 shares were soon worth £800 as the rush to extract the ore started. This gave rise to Morwellham's fame as the "richest Copper port in Queen Victoria's Empire", and the queen herself visited in 1856.
Another inclined plane was built to transport the ore down the hill and a new quay was added to handle the 30,000 tons of ore that were exported each year. Arsenic was also extracted and it became the world's largest supplier of the mineral in the latter part of the century. However by 1903 the Consols' wealth was exhausted and the mines closed.
By this stage, the railways had taken over and Morwellham's usefulness was also ended. The canal tunnel was used as a water supply for a hydroelectric plant and the inclined planes were abandoned.
All is not to well at Morwellham Quay the following information has come from Tamar Valley Heritage GroupSadly, years of neglect, underfunding and mismanagement combined with the changing tastes of consumers and competition from other tourist attractions has resulted in a year on year decline in visitor numbers, leaving Morwellham Quay looking rather shabby and in deep financial crisis.
The Morwellham and Tamar Valley Trust is due to file accounts in July 2008 for the year ending September 2007. Accounts currently available are for the year ending September 2006. Updated accounts will be added as soon as they are available.
Financial Summary
In the year, the company reported a consolidated loss of £65,647 (in 2005 the losses were £55,726).
It should be noted that over a period of about 10 years, the trust has managed to run up debts of close to £1 million. In the year ending September 2006, the total debt (creditors) reported in the published accounts was £967,292 of which £891,442 relates to bank loans and overdrafts.
Income from admissions fell to £376,463 from 405,358 in 2005 (a reduction of 7%).
We hope that the information we provide will be of great interest and value to those planning to visit Morwellham Quay, potential employees and volunteers, but perhaps most importantly to the tax payers of Devon and Cornwall who’s taxes are being spent in preventing the financial failure of the Morwellham and Tamar Valley Trust.
This would have lead to the closure of Morwellham Quay, and been a major embarrassment to the ‘Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site’ project team, Devon County Council, West Devon Borough Council and other parish and district councils involved in the project or upon who’s land some of the project areas sit.
Tamar Valley Heritage Group are not opposed to the existence of Morwellham Quay as a museum site and fully recognises the importance of this and other sites in providing a vital educational resource and viable link to our local, national and international heritage.
The group is however concerned about the operational and financial management of heritage projects in the Tamar Valley, the lack of transparency, detrimental environmental impact, destruction of mine sites, self interest, irrelevant and inappropriate development and the apparent lack of accountability.
Fire Exercise 9th of June Morwellham QuayAt 18:30 on the 9th of June Yelverton along with Tavistock and Bere Alston crews were involved in a fire exercise at Morwellham Quay, the exercise was organised by the Bere Alston Fire crew. The scenario was, a fire in the train, 200 mts into the mine tunnel with multiple persons reported.
Bere Alston was the primary pump and the overall commander of the incident was a Crew Commander from Bere Alston. During the course of the exercise a total of ten Breathing Apparatus wearers were deployed into the mine and 5 casualties were rescued.
The casualties were made up of friends and family of the Bere Alston Crew who gave up their free time to help out. The Yelverton crew provided BA wearers and Crew Commander Kev Brown acted as sector commander for the casualty handling area.
The picture above is the very train that takes you into the mine, it does not go underground as Stuart said, but more into the hillside that was mined.
As you may know I do have a problem being in a postion where I have no control of my way out and I really did not think I would go ahead with the trip into the mine. I know Carol wanted too and I was so pleased I did for Carol, but I will tell you I really hated it and found it much harder to cope with than I expected.
Just a few extra shots, don't want the Merse PC running slow do we
Merse does not like my flower close ups, so its back to wildlife ;D
