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Summary

A nucleated courtyard house settlement known as Chysauster 'Ancient British Village'.

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
• SMR No. (OS Quarter-sheet and SMR No.): SW43NE 150

Monument Type(s):

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

Full description

Lying high on the SSW facing slopes of Chysauster tenement are the well known remains of a nucleated courtyard house settlement known as Chysauster 'Ancient British Village'. The tenement comprises a cluster of ten courtyard houses and a fogou which lie in a well defined terraced field system.

The site has a long history of archaeological exploration and excavation. It was first recognised by a little known antiquary, Henry Crozier, a Penzance dentist, in 1847 and was first surveyed by Blight in 1861 and then by Watkins (at 1:1536) in 1928. House 6 was partially excavated by Borlase in 1873 when he also explored the fogou (36008.11). During the 1890s Holman and Cornish partially excavated House 4 on behalf of the Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society and Kendrick investigated House 3 in 1928.

Excavation continued on the site during the early 1930s when the site became the responsibility of the Ministry of Works; Hencken excavated Houses 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 for reasons of consolidation, reconstruction and display. Hencken's excavations in the 1930s showed a long occupation history from at least the 1st century BC up to the 3rd century AD. Further excavations were carried out by Croft Andrew in 1939 but his results have not been published. Only Houses 1, 2 and 8 remain unexcavated. A Ministry of Works survey produced a plan at an unspecified date and this appears in the literature with Hencken's original house numbers. An OS survey in 1960 added no further detail to the original plan and no new information resulted from their 1975 visit.

A single courtyard house (36008.05) lies downslope from the village and this was first surveyed at the time of a Ministy of Works survey, and was resurveyed by the OS in 1960 and again by the Cornwall Archaeological Unit in 1985. The extensive field system associated with Chysauster was recognised in the late 1950s but was not surveyed in any detail until 1983 and 1985 when it was planned at a scale of 1:1000 by Nowakowski and Sharpe of the Cornwall Archaological Unit.

The site is presently under Guardianship ownership and protection and is a Scheduled Monument.

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Site history:
h1: 1847. CROZIER, H
h2: 1861. BLIGHT, JT
h6: 1928. WATKINS, D
h9: 1960. QUINNELL, NV / OS
h10: 1975. FLETCHER, MJ / OS
h11: 1982. WEATHERHILL, C / CCRA
h12: 1983. SMITH, G AND ROSE, P / CEU AND CAU
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Hencken, HO'N, 1933, An Excavation by H.M. Office of Works at Chysauster, Cornwall, 1931 (Article in Journal). SCO7212.

Ancient Monuments Laboratory, 1986, A note on the Prehistoric Pottery from Chysauster, Cornwall (Report). SCO28778.

Ancient Monuments Laboratory, 1986, Soil report on the cairn and field system at Chysauster, Penzance, Cornwall (Report). SCO28771.

Cornwall Archaeological Unit, 2016, Chysauster Ancient Village (Report). SCO27702.

Blight, JT, 1861, Account of an Ancient British Village in Cornwall, 38-46 (Article in Journal). SCO2861.

Borlase, WC, 1873, Vestiges of Early Habitation in Cornwall, 325-348 (Article in Journal). SCO2896.

UNKNOWN, 1881, UNKNOWN TITLE, 31 (Unedited Source). SCO6387.

Borlase, WC, 1884, Cornish Antiquities Viewed in the Light of Modern Research, (NS) VOL 3, 107, 114 (Article in Journal). SCO2889.

UNKNOWN, 1893, UNKNOWN TITLE, 106 (Unedited Source). SCO6548.

Page, W (Editor), 1906, Victoria History of the County of Cornwall, 370 (Bibliographic reference). SCO4068.

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

Hencken, H O'N, 1932, The Archaeology of Cornwall and Scilly, 133-139, 143, 151, 167, 288, 297 (Bibliographic reference). SCO3489.

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

Pool, PAS & Russell, V, 1959, Antiquities in the North-East Part of the Parish of Gulval, 149 (24) (Article in Journal). SCO5140.

Fox, A, 1964, South West England, 148-150, PL 92 (Bibliographic reference). SCO3332.

UNKNOWN, 1968, UNKNOWN TITLE, VOL XXVIII, 192 (Unedited Source). SCO8003.

Jackson, M. & Jackson, A., 2006, Ancient Stones of Kernow (Booklet). SCO27463.

Mercer, R, 1973, Chysauster Prehistoric Village, 83, 237-284 (Article in Serial). SCO3928.

Weatherhill, C, 1982, Courtyard Houses of West Penwith. A Survey, 48-54 (Bibliographic reference). SCO5029.

Cornwall Archaeological Unit, Field Drawing (GRE), GRE 6 (Cartographic materials). SCO5089.

Cornwall Archaeological Unit, 198-, Drawing Archive, Hanging (GRH), GRH 68/4/4735 (Cartographic materials). SCO5088.

NOWAKOWSKI, JA & SHARPE, A, 1986, CAU ARCHIVE DRAWING, 68/8 SW 4734 NW, SW 4735 SW, SW 4634 NE (Unedited Source). SCO8833.

Nowakowski, JA & Sharpe, A, 1986, Chysauster and Carnaquidden, Survey, Protection and Management (Cornwall Event Report). SCO4028.

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

Smith, G, 1996, Archaeology and Environment Of... Field System at Chysauster (Article in Journal). SCO4434.

Spalding, A, 1993, Chysauster Ancient Village: Wildlife Survey (Unpublished document). SCO4468.

Wells, D, 2000, Wildlife Statement of Chysauster Ancient Village (Unpublished document). SCO5034.

Vulliamy, CE, 1921, Prehistoric Remains in West Penwith (Bibliographic reference). SCO4996.

Hartgroves, S, 1988, Report on Watching Briefs at Chysauster and Carn Euny (Unpublished document). SCO3454.

French, CN Et Al, 1991, Chysauster and Ballowall Barrow: Botanical Survey (Unpublished document). SCO3340.

English Heritage, 1997, Chysauster Ancient Village: Information for Teachers (Bibliographic reference). SCO3304.

Christie, PM, 1987, Chysauster Ancient Village, Cornwall (Bibliographic reference). SCO3074.

Baillie Reynolds, PK, 1960, Chysauster, Cornwall (Bibliographic reference). SCO2766.

Smart. D, 1994, Fogous and hulls in south and west Cornwall (Unpublished document). SCO27443.

Cornwall Archaeological Unit, 2016, Chysauster, Gulval and Carn Euny, Sancreed, Penzance, Cornwall (Report). SCO27424.

Historic England, 2016, Chysauster, Gulval, Cornwall: analytical earthwork survey (Report). SCO27628.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• ECO4584 - Chysauster, Gulval and Carn Euny, Sancreed, Penzance, Cornwall (Ref: 2016R047)
• ECO4757 - Chysauster, Gulval, Cornwall: analytical earthwork survey (Ref: 60-2016)
• ECO4821 - Chysauster Ancient Village
• ECO5329 - Soil Report on the cairn and field system at Chysauster, Penzance, Cornwall (Ref: 111/87)
• ECO5332 - The human remains from Chysauster Kerbed Ring-Cairn, Cornwall (Ref: 13/89)
• ECO5336 - A note on the Prehistoric pottery from Chysauster, Cornwall (Ref: 14/86)

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