Kingswood Mine, Buckfastleigh, Ilsington & Ashburton Area, Dartmoor & Teign Valley District, Devon, England, UK

The Bowerdon adit was driven in 1918-20 with pitchblende being reported. It has very high levels of radon within and should not be entered.
The background radiation level in the area is about 12 counts/sec. In the valley at the adit entrance this rises to 25c/s, and 50c/s in the first metre of the adit. In the chamber containing the pitchblende the counts exceed 2000/second. There is pitchblende in both the wall and roof at this point which shows as black areas with yellow secondaries on the surface. There are also green copper(?) secondaries in very small quantities and an area of degraded pyrite.
A sketch plan of the adit is included in the site photos section as well as a numbered sequence of photos so there really is no reason to go into this adit. A K Hamilton Jenkin records the crosscut at 27 fathoms from the adit portal, my own estimate was 50m which agrees very closely. However hamilton Jenkin then records the adit driven a further 21 fathoms to the location of the pitchblende lode but makes no mention of the adit being driven beyond that point. My own estimate would agree with a further drive of 21 fathoms but that is to the extent of the adit, the pitchblende lode occurring at about 15 fathoms. I wore a full face shield, filtered breathing apparatus, disposable oversuit and double layered disposable gloves and I made no attempt to extract minerals from the walls of the mine for fear of creating radioactive dust.
Pitchblende was collected from the dumps at the adit entrance with counts >1000/s at 30cm.
Ref: Richardson P.H.G. (1991) Mines of Dartmoor & the Taymar Valley after 1913, Devon Books, Tiverton.