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Summary

Medieval or post-medieval field system consisting of two main fields to the west of Snider Park Plantation.

Location

Protected Status

• SHINE: Remains of prehistoric field systems and hut circle settlements, as well as funerary monuments above the Cherry Brook Valley, medieval field systems around Huccaby Rings and deserted Coxlake farmstead as well as the Brimpts Tin Mine leat

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX67SE135
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 619586
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX67SE/226

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• FIELD SYSTEM (Constructed, Early Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD (Between) to 1750 AD (Between))

Full description

Duchy of Cornwall, 1805-1818, Map showing freeholds & early enclosures on Dartmoor (Cartographic). SDV222734.

Royal Air Force, 1947, RAF/CPE/UK/2149, 4424-5 (11/6/1947) (Aerial Photograph). SDV282746.

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

SX 6606 7414. Field system adjoining Snider Park Plantation. Not all the banks in the area may be part of the field system. The field system extends from SX65707372 in the south-west to SX66367436 in the north-east. One bank goes through the field system from SX66057407 into another field system at SX65457473 (MDV26476).

Haythornthwaite, R. L., 1988, Brimpts Farm, Dartmeet, Princetown (Duchy Farms Survey), S. A. J. Probert (Report - Survey). SDV223270.

(10/11/1988) The system consists of two large fields.
Field 1 is of approximately 8.5 hectares (21 acres) centred at SX 6589 7389 and extending into Snider Park Plantation.
Field 2 is of approximately 4.5 hectares (11.12 acres) centred at SX 6588 7410. Field 2 is cut by the drystone field wall dividing Brimpts Outer and Huccaby Newtakes; only the northern arc was examined together with short dividing banks running south from it at SX 6591 7418 and SX 6605 7411 respectively. Those boundaries examined were prominent, vegetation-covered banks of earth-and-stone, 2-3 metres wide by 0.4-0.7 metres high with occasional traces of a ditch to one side. Three other slight possible, dividing banks were noted at SX 6617 7404 but not certainly connected.
Between SX 6606 7411 and SX 6624 7400 the Brimpts Mine leat (MDV25984) runs along the northern arc of field 2, partly destroying its bank. This has confused the aerial photograph plotting (1985 Aerial Photograph Project).
The fields, irregular and large, are almost certainly successive episodes of Medieval and Post-Medieval reclamation in the form of "newtakes". Field 1 probably came before field 2 by the principle of horizontal stratigraphy. They are not shown in a map of 1805 so this is a terminus ante quem for their use.
Contra to the 1985 Aerial Photograph Project source, the system does not extend beyond SX 6591 7418; the east-west feature at SX 6636 7436 is a moorland track. In addition, the "bank" going from SX 6605 7407 to SX 6545 7473 is in fact a stretch of the Brimpts Mine leat.
There is an isolated stretch of field bank 95 metres long, 3.5 metres wide and 0.5 metres high, with a slight ditch to the east, at SX 6627 7403, possibly part of this system.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV3462 - Survey at Huccaby Farm, Lydford
• EDV8634 - Brimpts Farm, Duchy Farms Survey
• EDV8409 - Dartmoor Royal Forest Project

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