For important guidance on the use of this record, please click here.

If you have any comments or new information about this record, please email us.

Summary

Courtyard House 3 at Chysauster, partially excavated by Kendrick and Hencken in 1928.

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument CO37: Chysauster ancient village

Other References/Statuses

• OS No. (OS Quarter-sheet and OS No.): SW43NE 69
• Primary Record No. (1985-2009): 36008.06
• SMR No. (OS Quarter-sheet and SMR No.): SW43NE 150

Monument Type(s):

• COURTYARD HOUSE (Iron Age - 800 BC to 42 AD)
• COURTYARD HOUSE (Romano British - 43 AD to 409 AD)

Full description

This courtyard house lies within the heart of Chysauster village (36008) on the downslope side of the main street. It appears in a good state of preservation on Blight's 1861 survey of the settlement, shown within a series of well defined enclosures lying on its southern downslope side (b1, h1). Watkins' 1928 survey at 1:1537 shows the house to be less well preserved (h2, b2) and that its northern upslope edge had been partly built upon by a modern field boundary (b2). On Watkins' survey plan this house was labelled No IV and in 1928 it was partly excavated by JD Kendrick and Hencken (h3, b2). They discovered that this courtyard house was in fact a paired example and was in this respect, unusual. The site had also witnessed at least two periods of structural modification so that, for example, the southern area was shown to have been primary. This comprised a courtyard and a round room which were orientated east (b2, b5). The round room was shown to have a paved floor and an internal drain. The secondary structure comprised a courtyard, a round room and cellular structure, all defined by well built stone walls. This was built wholesale onto the upslope edge of its southern and earlier neighbour (b2). Its main flagged entrance also shared a south-east aspect (b2). On the east side of the later courtyard the remains of a small round chamber filled with stone debris was uncovered and interpreted as a corbelled structure (b2). A season of excavation under the direction of Hencken was carried out in 1931 when work was directed at consolidating the extant stonework. During this time the site was coded House 3 (h4, b3). This second season discovered a second cellular structure on the northern side of the site; an area which had earlier shown little of interest. Both excavations produced considerable evidence for Iron Age occupation in the form of pottery which was considered to be 1st century BC to 1st century AD in date (b3). Although section and profiles were drawn up by Watkins in 1928 (h2, b2) no attempt was made to excavate the small adjacent 'garden' terrraces downslope from this site (b3). The OS surveyed this house in 1960 (h5) after it had been Scheduled (b4). No further comment was made after a revisit by the OS in 1975 (h6). Field notes and sketches were made by Weatherhill in 1982 (h7, b5).

--------------------------------
Site history:
1: 1861. BLIGHT, JT
2: 1928. WATKINS, DH
5: 1960. QUINNELL, NV / OS
--------------------------------

<1> BLIGHT, JT, 1861, UNKNOWN TITLE, VOL 38, 46 (Unedited Source). SCO6136.

<2> Hencken, HO, 1928, An Excavation at Chysauster 1928, VOL 34, 145-164 (Article in Journal). SCO3487.

<3> Hencken, HO'N, 1933, An Excavation by H.M. Office of Works at Chysauster, Cornwall, 1931 (Article in Journal). SCO7212.

<4> GORDON, MS, 1958, A M ENGLAND AND WALES, 21 (Unedited Source). SCO7674.

<5> Weatherhill, C, 1982, Courtyard Houses of West Penwith. A Survey, 49 (Bibliographic reference). SCO5029.

<6> Cornwall Archaeological Unit, 198-, Drawing Archive, Hanging (GRH), GRH 68/1/27/5 (Cartographic materials). SCO5088.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Finds

• FCO3819 - BOWL (Romano British - 43 AD to 409 AD)
• FCO4276 - CUP (Romano British - 43 AD to 409 AD)
• FCO3012 - HAMMERSTONE (Romano British - 43 AD to 409 AD)
• FCO3011 - SHERD (Romano British - 43 AD to 409 AD)
• FCO3013 - SLING SHOT (Romano British - 43 AD to 409 AD)
• FCO3818 - SPINDLE WHORL (Romano British - 43 AD to 409 AD)
• FCO753 - UNIDENTIFIED OBJECT (Romano British - 43 AD to 409 AD)

Associated Events: none recorded

Related records

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.