TP07 – Camping at Northcott Mouth and took the opportunity to try to get some samples from a possible source of the Torridge at Meddon just a few miles away. In the village there is a nature reserve around the source at SX277178. I spent some time wandering around the ouskirts of the nature reserve, looking for someone to talk to and find some way to easily enter the site. Asked permission from Dave who co-runs the Welcombe Pottery, but lives opposite. It was a nice chance meeting, as we have met before on many occasions. He told me a little about the source and the role of the community in creating and maining the reserve. He also mentioned a little rhyme about the sources of the Tamar, Taw and Torridge all starting at Meddon. (if you read this David will you remind me!)
It is quite a large site, several acres in total, with a man made pond at the western side. The site is swathed in willow and many types of wild flower sand sedge grasses with conditions underfoot damp, even in this dry weather. Eventually I found a suitable site in the middle of the reserve under a tree. Dug through about 2 inches of top soil until I came across the much paler, almost creamy, subsoil. I dug around 10kg of this material, which was not very plastic and again had a fair amount of shillet and stone in it.
In the studio, I dried it out and slaked this material down, then mixed it and put the slip through a #60 mesh sieve. There was a good clay content from the material compared to other samples and the palest in colour compared to all the othe other samples I had taken at this point. Other pooints to note were the relatively good plasticity and some sparkles in the clay from possibly micaceous minerals at a size that could get through the seive.
