Powder Mills, Dartmoor Forest, Devon
The ruins of a gunpowder mill. The mill was established in 1844 by a Plymouth alderman, George Frean. There was originally quite an extensive complex of buildings running up the valley with several water wheels turned by water from a leat and 2 chimneys. All the buildings are now in varying degrees of ruin although one chimney survives. The invention of dynamite in 1867 rapidly took over from gunpowder and the mills, which employed about 100 men, closed in the 1890s.
