This report presents the results of a historic building recording that was carried out by South West Archaeology Ltd. (SWARCH) prior to the conservation of the engine house at North Hooe Mine, Bere Alston, Devon. North Hooe Mine was established during the mid-19th century as part of Tamar Consols alongside the renewed exploitation of South Hooe Mine and further prospection elsewhere. This took place under the direction of the notable 19th century metallurgist-assayer Percival Norton Johnson. The site was closed in 1855 and the materials were sold to support renewed investment at South Hooe Mine. All of the buildings are shown as roofless and derelict on the early 1880s Ordnance Survey maps, indicating that they had been plundered for their materials. Attempts were made to revitalise the mine - a cross cut from South Ward Mine in 1874 and a failed dewatering during the early 20th century - though the only significant addition to the site was a pump house that dates to the c.1960s. The principal surviving remains are those of the pumping engine house and the smithy, both of which are swathed in vegetation and are in a poor structural state. Nonetheless, and despite a lack of statutory protection, the site is significant for its historical-illustrative and its associative value and for the fact that it embodies key attributes of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site.
Bryn W Morris (Wed,) studied this question.