Having just been away for a fine week's stay at the village of Belstone, near Okehampton on Dartmoor, it was a neat coincidence that an auction selection coming through is from Belstone Consols Mine.
Whilst staying in Belstone I had already checked into the localities and the mining history of the place.
Belstone is set on a sill beneath the main climb up onto Dartmoor and it is on this sill that mining took place, predominantly for copper and other metal ores.
Mining took place between the 1860s and First World War but now just about all visible signs are gone. There is a capped shaft on top of Ivy Tor and the adit beneath is blind, discharging nasty orange water from the portal.
Over at Belstone Consols some dumps are present but pretty well grassed over. The article linked below gives much more detail, but if you find yourself in Belstone the walk down to Sticklepath through the Taw Valley is highly recommended (good footware required). There are good Pubs at either end too!
Back to the mineral specimen, this one came from Cedric Rogers collection, from his label I am assuming it was self collected.
The main lode at Belstone was stratified garnet rock, with the metal minerals found in the strata. Belstone is known just about only for its garnet - greenish andradite.
Our "holiday rock" is typical but does show some axinite, too bad I didn't find anything similar myself!
