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 1 at Chysauster, unexcavated.

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): 36008.07
• 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 on the north-west side of Chysauster village (36008). It was first planned by Blight in 1861 whose plan shows it to comprise a solid stone curvilinear wall which defined the outer edge of the site (h1, b1). Blight's plan shows only experimental traces of internal features although the main entrance is clearly shown at its south-eastern end opening onto the main thoroughfare of the village (b1). On Watkins' survey carried out in 1928 at a scale of 1:1536, more detail inside the structure is shown but the overall poor condition of the feature remained clear (h2, b2). This site is numbered III on Watkins' survey plan (b2). Hencken appears not to have examined this site in any detail during his work at Chysauster in the 1930s (b3) although, like Watkins and Blight before him, made note of the remains of the extra-mural enclosures which lie adjacent and downslope to the house site (b3). The site was surveyed at 1:2500 by the OS in 1960 (h3) and no further comments were added by a further visit in 1975 (h4). Weatherhill notes from the main detail we have at present (h5). He writes that the main courtyard as well as the outlines of the round room can still be defined on the ground as well as the outlines of a long room lying on the north-east side of the courtyard. Only parts of the main structural wall of the site are visible at the south-easten end where the main entrance is still intact. A recent field boundary partly overlies the site on the north-east whilst an associated terrace lies parallel downslope from the site (b5). The site is Scheduled and at present is partly overgrown and partly grassed over (b6). As far as documentary evidence shows, it has never been excavated although there is great likelihood that down the centuries it had been robbed for its building stone (b6).
(b6) - Nowakowski, JA, 1991, Pers Comm, ,

--------------------------------
Site history:
1: 1861. BLIGHT, JT
2: 1928. WATKINS, DH
3: 1960. QUINNELL, NV / OS
4: 1975. FLETCHER, MJ / OS
5: 1982. WEATHERHILL, C / CCRA
--------------------------------

<1> BLIGHT, JT, 1861, UNKNOWN TITLE, VOL 38, 46, PLAN (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.

<7> Cornwall Archaeological Unit, 198-, Drawing Archive, Hanging (GRH), GRH 68/1/27/5 (Cartographic materials). SCO5088.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

Related records

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