There was a time when mining, especially tin-mining, was the most important industry of Devonshire. Traces left all over Dartmoor show that at a very early period tin was obtained there by the process called "streaming," that is to say by the washing of grains of the metal out of the disintegrated and crumbling granite. Vast numbers of abandoned shafts sunk in search of tin, copper, iron, manganese, and even silver, remain, together with their too often ugly buildings, as evidence of the former magnitude of the industry. At the present day, however, only twenty-four mines are in active operation, providing employment for no more than 700 men, who, in 1907, raised less than 1700 tons of metal of all descriptions.

The tin-miners of Devon and Cornwall were early formed into a corporate body whose affairs were managed by a Stannary parliament that met on Hingston Down. At a later period, probably at the beginning of the fourteenth century, the Devonshire men held their own parliament, which assembled on Crockern Tor. They were governed by a Warden—Sir Walter Ralegh held the office for some years—appointed by the Duchy of Cornwall, who collected the Duchy dues or royalties, and having ascertained the purity of each block of tin by "coinage," that is, by cutting off for analysis a "coin" or corner, stamped it with the Duchy arms. A miner convicted of selling impure tin was punished by having some of the melted metal poured down his throat. Lydford, Tavistock, Chagford, and Ashburton were called Stannary Towns, since at each of those places blocks of tin might be tested; and the arbitrary nature of the Stannary Court is hinted at in the proverbial expression: "Lydford Law; hang first and try afterwards."

The chief mining district of Devonshire begins at the Tamar and extends across Dartmoor and along its borders. The most important centre was Tavistock, but there were rich mines at North Molton, where several kinds of metal were worked, near Ashburton, and elsewhere.

The principal ores are those of copper and tin; some iron is worked, and there are rich veins, believed to be not yet exhausted although not now worked, of galena or silver-lead.

The Devonshire mines formerly produced more tin than those of Cornwall; but since the fourteenth century the output of the latter county has been the greater. The quantity now raised in Devonshire is inconsiderable, and in 1907 amounted to only 94 tons. Tin is very largely used in making what is called tin-plate, which is really sheet-iron dipped into the melted metal. It is also mixed with copper to make bronze or machine-brass, and it was for the manufacture of bronze that it was so much sought after by the ancient inhabitants of the country.

Copper-mining in Devonshire is believed to be a comparatively modern industry. It is not known whether the ancient Britons made their own bronze from native tin and copper, or whether they imported it from abroad. The Devon Great Consols Mine, four miles from Tavistock, once by far the richest mine in England, and one of the richest in the world, has shipped as much as 1200 tons of copper in a single month, and has produced altogether 3 ½ million pounds' worth of ore; but it now yields little but arsenic. In 1907 only 652 tons were raised in the whole county. The ore is not exhausted, but the cost of raising it from deep mines is too great to withstand foreign competition.

Devon Great Consols Mine

Ores of iron and zinc are widely distributed, but are little worked; and the annual yield, both of these metals and of manganese, of which this county was once a chief source of supply, is inconsiderable. Very rich silver-lead ore was formerly worked at Bere Alston and at Combe Martin, but the mines in both places have been abandoned. A very massive cup, made of Combe Martin silver, given to the Corporation of London by Queen Elizabeth, is still used at the inauguration of each Lord Mayor. Arsenic and arsenical pyrites, ochre, and umber are obtained, especially from some mines whose more valuable ore is exhausted. Cobalt, tungsten, and uranium also occur, and gold has been found in small quantities, generally in streams, as, for instance, in the West Webburn and below Lethitor.

Although the metal mines of Devonshire have lost their old importance, there are other minerals of great commercial value, of which altogether more than a million tons are obtained in the course of a year. China clay, or kaolin, a product of the natural decomposition of granite, is worked at Lee Moor, and more than 75,000 tons—which, however, is only one-tenth of that obtained from Cornwall—are annually exported, especially to Staffordshire, for the making of fine earthenware. Other kinds of potter's clay, white at Kingsteignton and Bovey Tracy, and red at Watcombe, are dug in still larger quantities.

There are many quarries in Devonshire, the most important of them being of limestone, of which more than half a million tons are worked every year. Heytor granite was used in London Bridge and Waterloo Bridge, and Lundy granite in the Thames Embankment. But the stone is not considered equal to that from Cornwall. The same remark applies to the slate, of which only 5000 tons are now raised annually. There are old quarries of it near Kingsbridge, and also at Tavistock and other places. Colyton slate is used for billiard-tables. Marble is worked at Chudleigh, and a finer quality at Ipplepen, Torquay, and Plymouth. There are large quarries at Beer. The material for whetstones has long been dug in the Blackdown Hills, where the refuse from the workings, like lines of railway embankment, is a feature in the landscape.

Stone Quarry, Beer

There is no coal in Devonshire, but there is much lignite at Bovey Tracy, where, in the bed of an ancient lake, a deposit of layers of it occurs, alternating with clay and sand, to a depth of 100 feet. On account of its disagreeable smell while burning and its low heating-power it is not used for fuel except for firing bricks, and to some extent in the pottery-kilns. There are also extensive beds of anthracite or culm near Bideford; but this, again, is not of a quality to serve as fuel, except for lime-burning, and the product of the one solitary working is ground up to make a paint called Bideford Black. There are vast and valuable deposits of peat on Dartmoor, in some places as much as thirty feet deep.