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Summary

Courtyard House 6 at Chysauster, excavated by WC Borlase in 1873, Hencken in 1931 and Croft Andrew in 1937.

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): 36008.10
• 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 is the most elaborate of all the courtyard houses within Chysauster village (36008). It lies close to its neighbour (36008.09) within the heart of the settlement. In 1873 WC Borlase partly excavated its interior and found the sherds of a pedastal urn of 1st century BC date together with a piece of 'metallic' tin (h2, b2, b5). A few years before Blight had made detailed notes about this site which he coded as House A on his survey plan (h1, b1). Blight's plan showed the house to be in excellent condition and defined its main components, a large open courtyard around which lay four rooms, two of which were almost perfectly circular. Blight noted that it incorporated a small 'beehive' shaped structure which later archaeologists showed was built into the body of a main structural wall on the north part of the house (b1, b5). Watkins' survey at 1:1536 in 1928 (h3) showed the house to be in good condition and that its main entranceway faced south-east. He also showed a large enclosure attched to the northern side of the house and an artificial platform on its south side; showing it to have been constructed in a similar way to its neighbour (36008.09) (b3). Hencken's limited excavations in 1931 aimed at clarifying aspects of the house with a view also to long term management and consolidation (b5). His work elaborated on earlier ideas about the house; showing features around the open courtyard to be more complicated than had previously been thought. This was especially true on the north side of the house where a long room was discovered as opposed to the two cells defined by Blight in 1861 (b1, b5). In addition a sump cell was discovered in the wall on the south side (b5). Croft Andrew conducted some work here later in 1938 although there are no details directly available (h5). The OS surveyed the site at a scale of 1:2500 in 1960 (h6) and a revisit in 1975 (h7) added no further comment. Weatherhill's notes of 1982 form a synopsis of available documentary sources (h7, b7). This house is part of the Scheduled village (b6) and is presently consolidated for exhibition and public access under Guardian ownership.

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Site history:
1: 1861. BLIGHT, JT
3: 1928. WATKINS, DH
6: 1960. QUINNELL, NV / OS
7: 1975. FLETCHER, MJ / OS
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<1> BLIGHT, JT, 1861, UNKNOWN TITLE, VOL 38, 46, PLAN (Unedited Source). SCO6136.

<2> BORLASE, WC, 1873, UNKNOWN TITLE, VOL 30, 325-348 (Unedited Source). SCO6302.

<3> Hencken, HO, 1928, An Excavation at Chysauster 1928, VOL 34, 145-146 (Article in Journal). SCO3487.

<4> Hencken, H O'N, 1932, The Archaeology of Cornwall and Scilly, 133 (Bibliographic reference). SCO3489.

<5> Hencken, HO'N, 1933, An Excavation by H.M. Office of Works at Chysauster, Cornwall, 1931 (Article in Journal). SCO7212.

<6> GORDON, MS, 1958, A M ENGLAND AND WALES, 21 (Unedited Source). SCO7674.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Finds

• FCO3795 - URN (Romano British - 43 AD to 409 AD)

Associated Events: none recorded

Related records

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