A "Maund" basket found in the reception of "Watts, Blake and Bearne" company in Kingsteignton. Notice on the basket reads - "A basket used for hoisting ball clay lumps from barges into sea going vessels at Teignmouth." The object called a maund was a small wicker basket with handles. The unit maund was used to measure quantities of oranges, gloves, and other stuff that would be carried in such a basket. The Stover canal was built in the 18th Century to transport clay and other minerals from the Bovey Basin and granite from quarries on Dartmoor to the docks at Teignmouth for nearly 150 years. It runs for 2 miles from Ventiford Basin near Teigngrace to Jetty Marsh on the outskirts of Newton Abbot. From there, barges would take their loads on to the river Teign to Teignmouth docks, a further 5 miles, where the cargo was transferred to seagoing boats. ### Update from 31/10/19 ### Watts, Blake, Bearne & Co were primarily a company involved in the extraction of ball clay from their pits and mines around Kingsteignton, although it did extract china clay from the area of Dartmoor near Cornwood and Lee Moor. The maund shown in the picture was for loading ball clay from lighters into ships at Teignmouth. China clay is not quarried in the Bovey Basin as it does not occur there. Today the former Watts, Blake Bearne & Co's quarries (of both china and ball clay) are worked by the Belgian company Sibelco

Boddy Collection