The tin workings at Vitifer, Birch Tor and Headland occupy both sides of the Redwater Valley immediately north of Grimspound. Vitifer stands on the west side and Birch Tor on the east, but the two were worked together for most of their history. The ground between Hookney Tor and Birch Tor is marked by openworks, shafts, spoilheaps, leats and ruined structures, the result of several centuries of tin extraction. The proximity to Grimspound means that the Bronze Age enclosure sits within sight of one of Dartmoor’s most extensive industrial landscapes.
Birch Tor and Vitifer was the most profitable tin mine on Dartmoor. Between 1852 and about 1928, 1,177 tons of black tin were recorded as being produced. Total output may have been nearer 2,000 tons if earlier, unrecorded operations from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries are included. The scale of the workings visible today reflects this long and productive history.
The earliest major phase of activity took place in the late medieval period, particularly in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Deep openworks were cut along the backs of the lodes, leaving linear trenches and spoil ridges that still define the hillsides. Streamworking along the valley floor accompanied these operations, with water diverted through channels and leats to assist in separating ore from waste. These medieval workings form the base layer of the later mining landscape.
From the mid‑eighteenth century the mines entered a new period of development. “Burch Tor bounds” is recorded in 1757, and by the 1780s the Dartmoor Mining and Smelting Company was active in the valley. By 1796 thirteen shafts had been sunk and forty men were employed. The mine remained profitable until the slump in tin prices during the 1820s. Around 1834 Captain John Paull (or Palk) acquired the lease at a low price, having reputedly kept his knowledge of the most productive lodes from the previous owners.
A major revival followed in the early 1860s. Under new ownership the mine employed about 150 people, and in 1864 some 150 tons of black tin were sold. Waterwheels, stamps and dressing floors supported the underground workings, and the combined Birch Tor and Vitifer operation reached its peak. After this the mine declined and closed in 1882.
A smaller revival took place between 1903 and 1913, employing around thirty‑five people and combining surface work with limited underground development. After the First World War there was a final period of intermittent activity, both above and below ground, before the mine was abandoned around 1939. By then the Redwater Valley had been shaped by more than six centuries of tinworking.
Headland Warren, immediately to the north, preserves a mixture of warrening features and mining remains. Pillow mounds, boundary banks and the warrener’s house sit alongside shaftheads, openworks and dressing floors. The leats and channels that cross the ground reflect the shared need to manage water for both mining and warrening. The combined landscape of Vitifer, Birch Tor and Headland Warren forms one of the most extensive and legible mining complexes on Dartmoor.
Approaching Grimspound from Bennett’s Cross, Hookney Tor or Hameldown, the route passes directly through this industrial ground. The Bronze Age enclosure, its hut circles and surrounding reaves stand within sight of the later mining scars, showing how prehistoric settlement, medieval tinworking, Victorian deep mining and twentieth‑century attempts at revival all occupy the same area.
