ANY IDEAS?

Came across this a few years ago out the back of Chewton.
I thought it might be a furnace to melt gold, amazing flue setup to draw air up from the lower part of the hill.
Amazing ingenuity.

is there any old time workings close by? if so it may be where they heated and reshaped the picks???

Part of an old water race, there is one in the Wipstick very similar and it's joined to a water race to take the water through the hill instead of around the hill.

cheers dave

moredeep they are called Welsh Chimney's. What they have done is, dig a trench going up hill and then put a cover over the top of the trench, like flat rocks or timber. That the top of the trench you will find a pit. In this pit they then put in quartz rock and start a fire also in the pit. Air then is drawn up the trench like an air flue creating a very hot fire at the top. The quartz starts cracking, because it contains water and then it is easier to crush or dolly. There is also a couple of them near Golden Point Road, also Chewton, on top of a hill. As far as I know I think they are also Heritage listed.
wombat

Thanks for that wombat,I thought that may have been a possibilty
but ruled it out because of the size,I thought it a lot of work for a quartz oven.
I suppose it was a case of making life that little bit easier.
There are some great examples of bigger quartz roasting ovens in maldon and in newstead.
I'll keep an eye out for the others.All truly amazing feats of work.

cheers