Hemerdon

The village of Hemerdon (postcode PL7) sits in Devon in England’s South West, 11 km northeast of Plymouth and close to Plympton. Its character is shaped by the landscape of industry and geology: immediately to the north lies Hemerdon Mine — variously called Hemerdon Ball Mine, Hemerdon Bal Mine and, briefly, Drakelands Mine — a tin and tungsten site that hosts the fourth-largest tin–tungsten deposit in the world. The mine stands adjacent to the large china clay pits near Lee Moor and just north of the villages of Sparkwell and Hemerdon itself. Hemerdon Mine was out of operation from 1944, save for a trial in the 1980s; work to re-open it began in 2014 but ceased in 2018. That legacy lends Hemerdon a quietly industrial charm: a compact Devon village where rural lanes meet the echoes of mining history, offering an evocative glimpse into the region’s geological riches.