Exeter: grid reference SX880973

Notable minerals: Manganite, Psilomelame, Pyrolusite, Rhodonite & Wad.

Otherwise known as Upton Pyne, the Newton St Cyres manganese mine is located about three and a half miles northwest of Exeter.

Thomas Moore states in his book of 1829 entitled 'The History of Devonshire', that: 'Manganese has been found in great quantities in Devonshire; and within the last fifty years a considerable trade has been carried on in that article. It was first found about the year 1770 at Upton Pyne, and this mine, together with two others in the same lode at Newton St. Cyres, for many years supplied the whole United Kingdom with this article; it appears to have been the finest ever raised. For some years the consumption was inconsiderable, the use of it being confined almost entirely to the manufacturing of what was called Egyptian ware in Staffordshire, and in purifying glass. The use of it, however, in bleaching, afterwards became considerable, and from 1804 to 1810 the quantity shipped from Exeter amounted to between two and three thousand tons per annum. The mines or pits at Newton St. Cyres failed about 1810; and since that period the mine at Upton Pyne has been exhausted. New discoveries of this mineral, however, were made in the parishes of Doddescombsleigh, Ashton, Christow, &c. seven miles west of Exeter, which are said to have produced from ten to 1500 tons per annum. In 1821 they were still worked, but the produce of the preceding year did not exceed 450 tons. It was shipped at Exeter. About the year 1815, manganese mines were opened in the neighbourhood of Tavistock, in the parishes of Coryton, Brent Tor, Lifton, Maristow, and Milton Abbot, from which considerable quantities were procured, and shipped at Plymouth. Manganese has also been found in North Devon, in the parishes of Braunton and Morwood, but not in sufficient quantity to encourage speculation.'.

The manganese mine at Newton St. Cyres is recorded as producing 1,260 tons of manganese ore between 1872 and 1879.