Bere Alston Mines

Bere Ferrers, West Devon, Devon, UK

The Bere Alston mines are amongst the oldest silver-lead mines in the UK, dating back centuries.

The Bere Alston mines are sometimes known as the ‘Old Beer’ mines or the Tamar Silver Mines, but they are a relatively large area of workings and include numerous historical mines; it is possible that some confusion over the names of the mines will be found especially in older specimens.

They include numerous combination mines, like East Tamar Consols and South Tamar Consols.

The mines are some of the oldest in the country, worked as early as the 13th century. They were worked later in the 1700 and 1800s for fluorite and mineral specimens.

The blue Fluorite from the site is rather interesting!

The mines contain numerous sublocalities:

  • East Tamar Consols
    • Furzehill Mine / East Tamar Mine
    • Lockridge Mine / Goldstreet Mine
    • Whitsam Mine
  • Great East Tamar Mine
  • North Ward Mine
  • Queen of Tamar Mine
  • South Tamar Consols
    • Birch Mine
    • Cleave Mine
  • Tamar Consols
    • North Hooe Mine
    • South Hooe Mine
  • Tamar Valley Mine
  • Ward Mine

Many of these mines have multiple names, and some have other sublocalities. This may not come even close to being a complete list.

 

Further reading

 

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