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Summary

A field system of probable prehistoric date is recorded from field investigation and aerial survey crossing the slopes of Crownhill Down. The field system is regular in plan, aligned roughly north-north-east to south-south-west with little regard to the topography of Crownhill Down. Several hut circles are known dispersed within and to the south of the main body of the field system.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1002596: Hut circle 1000yds (915m) E of Coleland Bridge
• SHINE: Prehistoric barrows and hut platforms, remains of parallel reave system dating to the Bronze Age and enclosure of unknown date on Ridding Down

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: 439306
• National Monuments Record: 910500
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX56SE/100
• Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division: SX56SE122
• Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division: SX56SE70
• Pastscape: 439453

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• COAXIAL FIELD SYSTEM (Bronze Age - 2200 BC to 701 BC)

Full description

Royal Air Force, 1946, RAF/106G/UK/1190, RAF/106G/UK/1190 RS 4252-4253 27-FEB-1946 (Aerial Photograph). SDV363067.

Linear banks are visible as earthworks.

Royal Air Force, 1965, RAF/58/7109, RAF/58/7109 F42 0127-0128 22-NOV-1965 (Aerial Photograph). SDV351186.

Linear banks are visible as earthworks.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1970 - 1978, SX56SE70 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV343431.

Greeves, T. A. P., 1975, Crownhill Down Field System (Personal Comment). SDV343439.

Site visited in 1975. Field system with huts, there are some banks on the east side of Ridding Down. These seem to pay little attention to the possible Medieval fields of Broomage. Also fields, the highest point of Crownhill Down from Crownhill Tor to SX57496026 extending down the slope to the east and also to west as far as the Bottle Hill Leat and below it. Hut associated with it. Some of it is undoubtedly Prehistoric, some of it may be Medieval.

Edwards, C., 1979, An archaeological survey of an area surrounding Hemerdon Ball (Report - Survey). SDV337241.

Visited on 26th June 1979. A major prehistoric field system runs along the crest of Crownhill Down from SX57436044 to SX57466098. With three longhouses with enclosures. The banks average a height of 0.2 metres and consist of earth and stones, occasionally orthostatic.
A remodelled Prehistoric field wall was visited on 19th June 1979. The wall is ditched on the west side and runs from a hut circle at SX57556057 to join an original Prehistoric wall. Medieval wall, length 240 metres, height 1 metre, Prehistoric wall, height 0.2 metres.
Site visited on 27th June 1979. from

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1979 - 1980, SX56SE122 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV343613.

Field system with huts on the highest part of Crownhill Down from Crownhill Tor at SX57496026 extending down the slope east and west as far as Bottle Hill leat.
There are five hut circles, a hut platform and a cairn within the field system and evidence of subsequent Medieval settlement and remodelled field banks.
Site visited on 3rd October 1980. Field system centred at SX57486062 occupies 18 hectares of the west slope and ridge top of Crownhill Down. Rectilinear fields from 30 metres by 80 metres to 50 metres by 200 metres. In the northern part the larger ones show traces of subdivisions with boundary banks 1.7 metres wide and up to 0.5 metres high. Ditches indicate Medieval re-use.

National Monuments Record, 1980, NMR 1746, NMR 1247/154-158 31-MAY-1978 (Aerial Photograph). SDV363132.

Linear banks are visible as earthworks.

Gilbertson, D. + Collis, J., 1982, Mapping Three Millennia of Settlement and Land Use on Crownhill Down, South West Dartmoor (Article in Serial). SDV362901.

Survey recorded two field systems in the south-east corner of the area identified by Greeves. The northern of the two (Field System 3) includes two hut circles. The southern Field System 2 includes 3 hut circles.

Gilbertson, D. + Collis, J., 1985, Linear Banks on Crownhill Down, Dartmoor (Article in Serial). SDV337244.

Survey recorded two field systems in the south-east corner of the area identified by Greeves. The northern of the two (Field System 3) includes two hut circles. The southern Field System 2 includes 3 hut circles.

Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, 1985, SX56SE (Cartographic). SDV336987.

Field system shown on 1985 interpretation.

Butler, J., 1994, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Three - The South-West, 194-6, Map 52, Figure 52.16 (Monograph). SDV137656.

Field system of linear boundaries running north-east to south-west to the west of the 'Tor' enclosing several hut circles.

Environment Agency, 1998-2017, LiDAR DTM data (1m resolution) EA: South Devon Coast to Dartmoor, LIDAR SX5760 Environment Agency DTM 01-JAN-1998 to 31-MAY-2017 (Cartographic). SDV361470.

Linear and circular banks are visible as earthworks.

National Monuments Record, 2002, 439306 (National Monuments Record Database). SDV343432.

A Bronze Age field system lies across an undulating moorland hillside on Crownhill Down on a north-east to south-west orientation. This impressive rectilinear field pattern is clearly associated with the Prehistoric reave system on a similar orientation which crosses nearby Ridding Down. The fields are bounded by banks on average 1.8 metres wide and constructed of large boulders up to 0.7 metres high, stones and soil. Some banks on the steeper parts of the slope incorporate well defined lynchets. There is a marked difference in the levels of the fields which have been cut into the side of the hillslope. The area to the south of the rectilinear pattern comprises fragmentary walling which gives way further south to open unenclosed moorland. A number of hut circles are associated with this field system. The area has been utilised by Medieval farming and is cut by Medieval and later leats. Interpretation of the site is now difficult because much is obscured by dense stands of mature gorse and swathes of bracken.

National Monuments Record, 2002, 910500 (National Monuments Record Database). SDV343666.

Bronze Age field system centred at SX57766098 comprising lengths of stone banks with the footings of a large hut circle at SX57826092. This part of Crownhill Down is covered by dense vegetation. Other details: NMR Number SX56SE155.

Fletcher, M., 2002, The Archaeological Landscape of Crownhill Down and Ridding Down: Survey Report, 4 (Report - Survey). SDV343412.

Other details: Figure 3 and Crownhill Down Survey.

National Monuments Record, 2009, 439453 (National Monuments Record Database). SDV343965.

Bronze Age field system with associated hut circles on Crownhill Down. Other details: NMR Number SX56SE122.

NERC, 2013, LiDAR DTM data (1m resolution) Tellus: South Devon to Dartmoor, LIDAR SX5760 Tellus DTM 01-JUL-2013 to 31-AUG-2013 (Cartographic). SDV361514.

Linear and circular banks are visible as earthworks.

Hegarty, C., Knight, S. and Sims, R., 2019-2021, The South Devon Coast to Dartmoor Aerial Investigation and Mapping Survey. Area 2, Avon Valley to Plymouth (AI&M, formerly NMP) (Interpretation). SDV362982.

Banks are visible as spread earthworks 2.5 to 4.5m wide on aerial photographs of 1946 onwards, defining a series of rectilinear enclosures or fields 50 to 70m wide, aligned roughly north-north-east to south-south-west. The longest continuous boundary identifiable exceeds 500m in length, but subdivisions along the primary axis define individual fields or plots circa 70 to 200m long.
The field pattern is terrain oblivious, maintaining the primary axis with little regard to the topography of Crownhill Down, approaching Crownhill Tor at circa 233m elevation in the east and dropping to circa 200m elevation less than 300m to the west. A boundary is also identifiable from lidar derived visualisations extending north from the Down into Knowle Wood, north of the Tory Brook, descending to an elevation of circa 165m.
Four hut circles are identifiable within the area of the field system and three circa 100m to the south-east on the ridge of Crownhill Down. All are recorded individually.
The prehistoric field system appears to have been incorporated into later, possibly medieval land-management systems. This is perhaps most obvious to the north and south of the main north-north-east to south-south-west aligned system, where banks abut the prehistoric banks from the north-west and south-east. A substantial north-north-east to south-south-west aligned linear bank and ditch circa 230m long, centred on circa SX57526045, probably originated as part of the prehistoric field system but appears to have been incorporated into the later field pattern.
A roughly circular enclosure circa 40m north of the main field system (MDV12908) might post-date the main period of field system use.
The field system earthworks remain clearly identifiable on visualisations derived from lidar data captured between 1998 and 2017.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV4559 - Archaeological Landscape of Crownhill Down and Riddding Down
• EDV8098 - The South Devon Coast to Dartmoor Aerial Investigation and Mapping (formerly NMP) Survey, Area 2, Avon Valley to Plymouth (Ref: ACD2040)

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