Haytor Granite Tramway

The granite from the quarries near Haytor Rock was much in demand for construction work in the cities of England, but in an era when railways and reliable roads had not yet been developed, the transport of this heavy and bulky commodity was a significant problem. Coastal shipping was a practicable transport medium, and the Stover Canal was available from Ventiford to the Teign Navigation. The Haytor Tramway was constructed to carry the granite the to the canal, which involved a falling vertical interval of to the basin of the Stover Canal. Its form was a close relative of a plateway, where longitudinal L-shaped metal plates were used to support and guide the wheels of wagons. In the Haytor case, the "plates" were cut from granite blocks. The blocks were from to long and about square. by James II Templer (1748–1813) of Stover House, Teigngrace, for the clay traffic, and was extended to Teigngrace in 1820. From here the granite was carried by canal boat to the New Quay at Teignmouth for export by ship, the quay having been built in 1827 for the purpose, making midstream transshipment no longer necessary. The wooden flat-topped waggons had iron flangeless wheels and ran in trains of usually twelve waggons drawn by around 18 horses in single file, in front for the upward journey and at the rear for the downward. The vehicles used were probably adapted road waggons and were about long, with a wheelbase of . The wheels were in diameter with a tread, and were loose on the axles. The twelve-wheeled reference in the poem above means 'twelve waggons with wheels'. The granite trade was always somewhat sporadic with fluctuating production and indeed no granite was produced or transported between 1841 and 1851 and the quarries and tramway had closed by 1858. Several thousands of tons of granite had been quarried some years, but competition from Cornish granite quarries with cheaper transport put paid to the business and the tramway fell into neglect, however its robust construction and low recyclable value meant that it was never lifted and much has survived the passage of time. Thomas claims that there were proposals in about 1905 to lay an electric tramway along the route as a tourist attraction, but this scheme failed to mature. ==Construction==

track as used by Richard Trevithick showing striking similarities to the granite trackwork of the Haytor Tramway. The tramway was built in 1820 without an Act of Parliament and opened on 16 September 1820, but the consulting engineer is unknown, although George Templer of Stover House owned the quarries and was no doubt responsible. A later description listed some of the dignitaries who attended: Among the company were Lord and Lady Clifford of Ugbrooke; Mr. Bastard from Buckland; Sir Thomas Dycke Acland; Sir Henry Carew came from Haccombe; and Sir Lawrence Palk from Haldon, beside many other county magnates from other parts. The construction is exceedingly unusual, the closest possibly being the Weedon Stoneway in Northamptonshire of 1837 which was built at great expense as a mail coach route by the Turnpike Commissioners who were in competition with the newly constructed London & Birmingham Railway. The only other comparable tramway known to exist was a very short 3 ft gauge limestone line at Conisbrough, near Doncaster. The tramway itself was built out of the granite it would carry and ran from the Haytor quarries to Ventiford Quay on the Stover Canal. At first, it was about long, but it was later extended to about including the various sidings. The hard granite stone was well-suited to the purpose as it can withstand high pressures and was laid in lieu of iron rails. The tramway had a mainline running down to the Stover canal and six branches or sidings running from the separate quarries. The sidings were altered several times during the existence of the line and track was often lifted and used elsewhere as circumstances demanded. Various minor and one substantial cutting, small embankments and a few short bridges exist along the length of the line. Owing to the nature of the 'rails' large parts of the old tramway still exist, especially in the area near Haytor itself. ==Route==

Carrington in the late 1820s relates how the rail-road can be used as a route, for pedestrians or those on horseback, from Haytor to Teigngrace, making the point that a tramway usually differs from a railway by effectively being part of a road and also that the frequency of the granite traffic was usually low and slow moving, so passage along the route by the public on foot or horseback would not have been particularly hazardous. It may be that pedestrians and riders were asked to pay a toll as on the Kilmarnock and Troon Railway in Ayrshire, Scotland. Milestones were erected, marking distances from Ventiford. Passengers were never carried and the milestones may have been a whim on behalf of George Templer. The four surviving stones, classified by the Milestone Society, are detailed below: Granite seems to have been the only traffic carried as the company was reluctant to go to the expense of building high-sided waggons or trucks for iron ore transportation. When the Moretonhampstead and South Devon Railway was opened in 1866, the tramway had been disused since 1858; however the land owner, the Duke of Somerset, insisted that a siding and a crane should be built and new interchange sidings made at the 'Bovey Granite Siding', south of Bovey Tracey, although it was probably never used. == The Templer Way ==

This is a route which follows closely the route of the Haytor Granite Tramway and the Stover Canal, continuing to the New Quay in Teignmouth docks. A good place to see the track is where it crosses a minor road which leads to Manaton, just off the Haytor to Bovey Tracey road. Once off the moor the place to see the track at its best is a small section of the tramway running through Yarner Wood. There is also a well-made five-mile (8 km) marker stone. The granite track sections can be followed through the woods before the pathway diverts back onto the main Bovey Tracey road. The tramway cuts across fields down to the road which runs beside the Edgemoor Hotel and a few track setts lie scattered on the lawn of this hotel, but no clear line of the track can be distinguished. Chapple Bridge was the only bridge on the tramway, crossing the Bovey leat, until the opening of the second quarry at Holwell Tor. Ventiford Cottages were built to house employees who worked on the tramway and canal, although some lived in a collection of small houses clustered around the inn which lay below Haytor Rocks. Stables were also maintained here for the horses that worked the canal and the railway. Granite setts can clearly be seen in the construction of bridges on the route of the Templer Waybridge. A previously-unknown section of the tramway at its terminus at Ventiford Basin was discovered in late 2014. == See also ==