 According to the evidence of stannary rolls, tin working at the Whiteworks mine site dates back to 1180, when it was associated with mediaeval field systems on the eastern edge of Fox Tor.More active mining began around 1790, when the Industrial Revolution began to fuel demand for tin, while also providing the technology to move from opencast mining to subsurface methods, previously impossible on the difficult Dartmoor terrain.Initially, there were no tin smelting houses operating in Devon, so Whiteworks sent tin ore to Calenick Smelting House, near the Cornish town of Truro.