Visitors to Morwellham Quay today are generally content to wonder through the partially restored village, follow the guided trails and go away with a ‘potted history’ of 19th Century mining activity and village life. However, the restoration carried out to date has to a certain extent been cosmetic and has concentrated on the buildings at the centre of the village.

Just below the surface, much still remains to be discovered and in recent years a small team of dedicated Archaeologists (for the most part unpaid volunteers) have made a start in uncovering and recording some of the more interesting aspects of the ports history.

July 2006 saw an ambitious project to uncover the remains (should there still be any) of the tunnel portal that once served the Devon Great Consols incline plane railway and, as it turned out there were some pleasant surprises in store!

Using the information recorded during the excavation, the survey of the current topography (below right), and crucially a rare surviving photograph (below centre) of the area taken in 1906 it was possible to ‘recreate’ - on paper at least (below right), the probable design features of this area, so crucial to the prosperity of the port. Click images to enlarge.

All drawings reproduced by kind permission of Robert Waterhouse. Photographs (excluding 1906 photo) by Lee Lamble.