By Andrew Westcott
Back To Mining Introduction > Location 4
This page covers the workings in Mistleigh Copse which are located at the point marked '4' on the map on my 'Mining Introduction' page, and they can be found at Ordnance Survey coordinates SX 853 861. There are in these woods the remains of collapsed adit entrances with little or no spoil heaps associated with them indicating they were driven for only a short distance for exploration, but finding nothing of commercial worth, although it is also possible that the miners hit a large ore body almost immediately, and any 'dead rock was backfilled rather than being dumped outside.
I suspect there are other workings in the area but possibly sited on land I never got to explore as a kid. Some areas were definitely considered out of bounds and land at this side of the village was out of my territory, and owned by a fearsome-looking farmer. So, although this page currently has nothing to offer, it acts as a placeholder for when I eventually do discover something.
I am aware of a report of holes appearing in the fields below and to the North of this wood where old workings had supposedly collapsed, one report describing how the ground, by chance, had fallen away between a horse and its cart leaving both stranded either side of the hole, but unharmed. I have as yet been unable to positively identify this area as all information is relying on old information which has been passed down, and in any case, I am unaware of any workings that low down in the valley.
Much about this place is guesswork as any records seem to be non-existent, so if anyone has any stories, or information on any of the manganese mines I'm studying here, whether factual or highly doubtful, third-hand or passed down from a grandfather, please contact me at the e-mail address below so we can add to the little we do know and hopefully put a few pieces of the jigsaw together, and attempt to get a better picture of Doddicombsleigh's mining history.
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