MMO561 - Luckyard Wood Mine (Monument)

Two blocked adits at SS 9236 3600 and SS 9242 3600. [1] The adits were one of the trial areas of the Brendon Hills Iron Ore Company but no records survive pertaining to the adits. [2] The remains of the two adits are difficult to locate. They lie at the foot of steep north facing slopes south of South Quarme farm. The most westerly one, centred at SS 92352 36005, lies in Luckyard Wood and has been obscured by dumped material following woodland clearance (information from farmer). However, it survives as a gulley running southeast into the hillside for 8 metres with a spoil bank 2 metres high on its northern side. To the west is a flat topped spoil dump, protruding from beneath a modern track. This feature is depicted as spoil on the Ordnance Survey 1st edition 25 inch mapping of 1889 [3], although the adit itself is not shown. The easterly adit is also depicted on [3] as a gulley running into the hillside with a spoil dump on its downslope side. The site of the adit is in a pasture field presumably cleared from the former woodland. It is not visible on the ground, but its National Grid Reference derived from its position on [3] is at SS 92430 36014. The spoil mound is still visible, and survives a pronounced linear mound 2.6 metres high and about 23 metres long. [3,4] The spoil mound and gulley described by the previous authorities were seen as earthworks and mapped during the Brendon Hills Mapping Project. [5,6] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [7]