More information : The New Florence Mine Tramway was constructed to connect the New Florence Iron Mine (see SS 73 SE 15) with South Molton. It conveyed iron ore from the mine to the main railway line. Its overall length was some 5.5kms (extending from SS 7460 3326 to SS 7300 2720).
The current investigation, as part of RCHME's West Exmoor Project, only includes the extreme northern end of the tramway, from the New Florence Mine site to the Exmoor National Park boundary.
The tramway best survives at its junction with the Crowbarn Mine Tramway (see SS 73 SW 21), where it is a sharply defined, flat-topped embankment 0.9m high. North of Brinsworthy Bridge it has been disturbed and eroded in places by the erratic course of the un-named stream. At several places it crosses and re-crosses this stream, and here attempts have been made to confine the stream with short sections of roughly coursed walling. In addition, lengths of tram rails still in place have been used as the basis for a makeshift bridge to carry the tramway over the stream at SS 7493 3173. Further north-east up the valley the course of the tramway is impossible to follow in places.
At SS 7527 3205 are the remains of a loading bay fronting the tramway and adjacent to other structures associated with the New Florence Iron Mine. In addition the Ordnance Survey 1st edition 25" mapping of 1888 depicts several sidings leading off the main tramway; there is no field evidence for these. The main line continued for some 200m north-east of the centre of the complex, and ended alongside a massive spoil heap issuing from one on the principal adits. (1)
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