Powder Mills

We are back on Dartmoor. If you travel from Moretonhampstead towards Tavistock, just past Postbridge you will see on your right, about half a mile from the road the remains of a gunpowder factory that was working in the 1800's and just nearby a small settlement where the workers used to live. You can see some small buildings without roofs which were in fact roofed with tared paper so that in the case of an explosion the roof would blow off and releive the force of the blast. The factory produced gunpowder for use in the tin mining industry that used to take place in the area. It closed down after the discovery of TNT.

This is an area that I return to time and time again to photograph on a day like today. Stormy, dark skies but bright shafts of light lighting up the ground like spotlights.
You just have to be lucky to be in the right place at the right time!