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Summary

Three adjoining enclosures on the south side of the reave traversing Cudlipptown Down covering 0.6 hectares with walls up to 2 metres wide by 0.5 metres high

Location

Protected Status

• SHINE: Earthwork and structural remains of a bronze age settlement along a reave as well as a medieval field system and two farmsteads and post-medieval or earlier tin streamworking remains and trial pits on Cudlipptown Down

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX57NW86
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 439967
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX57NW/93

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• ENCLOSURE (Constructed, Bronze Age - 2200 BC (Between) to 701 BC (Between))

Full description

Ordnance Survey, 1975, OS/75/369, 172 (Aerial Photograph). SDV254607.

National Monuments Record, 1977, NMR SX5479, 3/120 (Aerial Photograph). SDV226229.

Photograph taken on 20th May 1977.

Fleming, A., 1978, The Prehistoric Landscape of Dartmoor. Part 1: South Dartmoor, 97-123 (Article in Serial). SDV235265.

The other two huts are free standing within the enclosure. There are remains of a field system associated with the settlement, extending over 11 hectares centred at SX545792. The fields vary from 30 metres by 20 metres to 50 metres by 70 metres, with curvilinear boundaries, now overlain by a medieval or later field system. From the enclosure runs one of the parallel reaves, running west-east to the north of the Great Western Reave.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card, 1979, SX57NW86, SX57NW86 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV278184.

A small enclosed settlement of 0.25 hectares is centred at SX 54417921 on a slight north slope in rough pasture. The rectilinear enclosure, with sides of 47.0 metres, is formed by rubble walling 1.2 metres wide and 0.4 metres high which links three of the five huts (see illustration). A natural 'lynchet' from east to west subdivides the enclosure into two terraces. All the huts are of Type 1.
A: A circular scoop 2.7 metres by 3.0 metres in diameter, levelled up to a height of 0.5 metres on the north side and with a few protruding perimeter stones but no obvious entrance.
B: Levelled and of 6.3 metres internal diameter with rubble walling 1.0 metre wide and up to 0.7 metres high where in situ boulders are incorporated. No entrance is visible but a quantity of clearance stone has been thrown into the interior.
C: A hut with walling of single blocks 0.4 metres wide and 0.3 metres high, with an internal diameter of 4.5 metres and an entrance gap at the north east.
D: A hut of 6.6 metres internal diameter, cut into the hillside to a depth of 0.5 metres. Walling of single slabs and blocks, 0.5 metres wide and up to 0.4 metres high, supplemented by some external rubble. No entrance is visible.
E: Levelled to a height of 0.7 metres on the north to make a platform 5.1 metres by 3.5 metres with an entrance gap on the north-west. The walling, 1.0 metres wide and 0.4 metres high, is of single blocks with external rubble.
There are remains of a field system associated with the settlement and extending over 11.0 hectares centred at SX 545792. The fields vary from 30 metres by 20 metres to 50 metres by 70 metres usually with rather curvilinear boundaries though most have been stripped out and overlaid by a Medieval or later system so that only faint lynchetting and banks now survive. It is the settlement enclosure and a field which are visible as one feature on the OS air photograph. Settlement surveyed at 1:10 000 on MSD and at 1:2500. See ground photographs.

Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, 1985, Aerial Photograph Project (Dartmoor) - Dartmoor Pre-NMP (Cartographic). SDV319854.

Enclosure within modern agricultural land to the north of White Tor. Incomplete circuit.

Royal Commission for the Historical Monuments of England, 1987-1993, Duchy Farms Project Survey Visit (Report - Survey). SDV350839.

(05/02/1988) SX 5441 7921. A settlement comprising four hut circles and the remains of associated enclosures is situated on a moderate slope in medium clitter 500m N of White Tor. The site is split into two unequal parts by a large, maintained field wall running N to S and separating moorland to the W from enclosed pasture to the E.
Parts of three, rectilinear enclosures are attached in series to the S side of an E-W reave (SX 57 NW 85 C) traversing Cudlipptown Down, with fragmentary traces of a fourth attached to the N side. They occupy an area of c.0.6ha overall. Where best preserved the enclosure walls are 1.5m to 2m wide and 0.5m high and are composed of medium and large stones/boulders forming rubble lines occasionally linking natural rock outcrops. The reave is a stony scarp falling to the N and is 1.5m wide and 0.7m high.
Three hut circles: "C" "D" and "E" are linked by perimeter walling of the central enclosure S of the reave: they appear to pre-date the enclosure walls. Hut circle "B" may have been on the same perimeter but robbing has removed any relationship. The most easterly of the enclosures seems also to be an addition onto the SE side of hut circle "D".
The hut circles are as described by authority 2 with the following additions:
"A" SX 5439 7921 This scoop feature is possibly an annexe to hut "B"
"B" SX 5440 7921 A very fragmentary hut circle, appearing as a ring of stones and boulders.
"C" SX 5440 7918 A subcircular hut circle. No entrance is evident.
"D" SX 5441 7917
"E" SX 5443 7920 There are clear traces of double-faced walling to this hut circle. It is very well preserved; the best of the group.
The extensive field system recorded by Ordnance Survey (1978) to the E of the settlement is almost entirely Medieval in origin and is associated with a Medieval settlement (SX 57 NW 62). Consequently it is recorded separately now, as SX 57 NW 133. However, a series of small strip fields are attached to the most easterly of the prehistoric enclosures and they echo the line of the reave (SX 57 NW 85 C). This introduces the possibility that elements of the field system are pre-medieval, a fact recognized by Ordnance Survey.
See RCHME 1:2500 Survey of Cudlipptown Down.

Butler, J., 1991, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Two - The North, 94, Map 31, Figure 31.15 (Monograph). SDV219155.

'Cudlipptown Down East' settlement. Four huts remain in the upper rectangular enclosure, bisected by the present field wall.

Newman, P., 2004, Merrivale Range Baseline Condition Survey (Report - Survey). SDV346874.

(25/08/2004) Merrivale Range Baseline Condition Survey Visit. The huts and small enclosure remain as described in 1988. They lie in short-cropped grass and are in a stable condition.

GeoInformation Group Ltd, 2010, 1:625 2010 Colour aerial photography for Dartmoor (12.5cm resolution) (Aerial Photograph). SDV346026.

Enclosure and hut circles visible on the aerial photography.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV7441 - Condition survey of the archaeological sites of Merrivale Training Area
• EDV7570 - Condition survey of Merrivale Range training area
• EDV8423 - Duchy Farms Project
• EDV8713 - Merrivale Range: Monument Baseline Condition Survey

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