THE international mystery of whether there used to be a weigh-bridge at the site of the car park at Shaugh Bridge appears to have been solved this week.

The current car park has recently been cleared of undergrowth by the Dartmoor Preservation Association.

Following an article that appeared in the Dartmoor News by Ernie Hoblyn questions were raised on http://www.shaugh.net">www.shaugh.net

Roy Lillicrap, who used to live in Shaugh parish, asked the website: 'I am sure I can remember that there used to be a weigh-bridge opposite the clay works entrance by the road leading to the Mill. Does anyone else have memories of this?'

Answers came in from former Shaugh residents from all over the world — including Australia, Canada, the United States of America and Botswana.

Richard Lee from the USA wrote saying there was a weigh-bridge where the lorries left the clay loading stations to the weigh station on the left side of the road, then they proceeded over the bridge and in to the docks in Plymouth.

He said: 'Ships then carried the clay blocks up to the British Pottery works in the Midlands and also overseas I believe. The clay started out by being washed out of the sandy soil near Cadover then pumped into the clay pipeline which runs from Cadover on the Shaugh Village side of the Cad River by the Beacon then into ponds above the Shaugh Bridge clay works.

'From the ponds it was fed into the drying beds, which of course had the huge coal fired furnace under them, and the water was dried out. When the clay bed was dry the workers would manually cut the clay into blocks by dragging a cutter through them. Then the blocks were thrown over a small wall and down into the waiting lorries. It was very labour intensive work.

'As a kid I used to go in to the furnace room and the two stokers would let me shovel coal into the furnace. I could only stand two shovel loads. '

Don Balkwill, who runs the website added: 'The weigh-bridge was originally on the side of the road leading to the mill but was closed and a new one built near the cottage at the entrance to the car park.'

However, the debate continued after Don admitted that he still disagrees with former schoolfriend Brian who remembers the weighbridge on the other side of the road.