Wray Barton

This is a picture of the group of houses called Wray Barton, one of which is owned by my daughter and we call our Dartmoor Base. Up in the woods above the house you will find these remains of the Wray Mine which was operating here in the 1920 - 1930 and used to mine Micaceous Iron Oxide. It was no good to be used to make iron but was an important ingredient of corrosion resistant paint. Around it in the woods you can fine old rail lines and an adit, all part of the process of mining the ore.

The circular pits in my photo are the remains of a buddle pit specifically constructed, the purpose of which was to separate by sedimentation minerals from lighter rock dust in crushed ore. I have enclosed, bottom left, a small sketch of what they would have looked like when in use.

There are several of these old mines along the Wray Valley including the Kelly Mine which has its own preservation society and often open to the public. Its hard to imagine now that Dartmoor once supported a large mining industry but their remains are easy to find with the right direction and a sense of exploration