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Summary

The remains of a deserted farmstead on a west facing slope overlooking Spanish Lake. The settlement consists of a rectangular structure containing a single entrance and adjoined by several ancilliary buildings and two garden enclosures. Farmstead is shown on modern mapping to east of Spanish Lake and Little Trowlesworthy Tor and within a rabbit warren but not shown on earlier maps

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1019083: Medieval farmstead and field system, length of Willings Walls Reave, four round cairns, a ring cairn and pillow mounds at Willings Walls Warren

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX56SE77
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 439325
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX56SE/266
• Old SAM Ref: 24231

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• FARMSTEAD (Medieval - 1066 AD (Between) to 1539 AD (Between))

Full description

Devon County Council, 1838-1848, Tithe Mosaic, approximately 1838-1848 (Cartographic). SDV349431.

Not shown on mid 19th century Tithe Map.

Ordnance Survey, 1880-1899, First Edition Ordnance 25 inch map (Cartographic). SDV336179.

Not shown on late 19th century map.

Ordnance Survey, 1904 - 1906, Second Edition Ordnance Survey 25 inch Map (Cartographic). SDV325644.

Farmstead not shown on early 20th century map.

Royal Air Force, 1953, 58/1110, 0038 (Aerial Photograph). SDV157241.

Linehan, C. D., 1966, Deserted Sites and Rabbit-Warrens on Dartmoor, Devon, 124 Table (Article in Serial). SDV307246.

A deserted Medieval site consisting of enclosures and one building, probably the longhouse at the head of Spanish Lake which was thought to have been used as a Warren house. The material for the longhouse came from Willings Wall Reave, north of the bog.

Haynes, R. G., 1970, Vermin Traps and Rabbit Warrens on Dartmoor, 159 (Article in Serial). SDV166302.

Fleming, A. + Collis, J. + Jones, R. L., 1973, A Late Prehistoric Reave System near Cholwich Town, Dartmoor, 4 (Article in Serial). SDV358808.

A deserted Medieval site consisting of enclosures and one building, probably the long house at the head of Spanish Lake which was thought to have been used as a warren house. (SX 583647). The material for the long house came from Willings Wall Reave (SX 56 NE 123), north of the bog

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1977, SX56SE77 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV139332.

(14/06/1977) SX 58256455. The Medieval Longhouse lies at the base of a gentle southwest facing slope, at 335m. above OD. It consists of a single building, 15m. by 4m. internally, with a single partition wall near the east end. The walls, 0.7m. thick and 0.5m. high, are constructed of small, coursed, boulders, probably from the destroyed reave, which would have run across the site. The entrance, 1.0m. wide, is on the south side. There is possibly an outshut, 2.0m. wide and in poor condition, on the south side, together with the remains of an enclosure, about 7m. by 4m. A second enclosure, 11m. by 7m., is built on the north wall. There is no ground evidence, that the building was used as a warren house, although there are pillow mounds SX 56 SE 91 nearby. Surveyed at 1:10 000 on PFD. Enlargement survey at 1:500.

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

'DMS' shown on aeial photograph transcription but no reference given.

Gerrard, S., 1990-2002, Monument Protection Programme. Archaeological Item Dataset., 140750 (Report - Survey). SDV277946.

Site visited on 15th April 1995. Medieval farmstead in the centre of an historic field system. The farmstead is partly built upon an earlier Prehistoric reave and includes at least one long house, outbuildings, garden plot and farmyard. To the north of the long house is a second enclosure which survives as a 10 metre long and 6.4 metre wide sub rectangular area defined by a 1.2 metre wide and 0.4 metre high rubble wall which abuts the long house.

Butler, J., 1994, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Three - The South-West (Monograph). SDV137656.

Depicted by Butler.

Robertson, J. G., 1994, The Archaeology of the Upper Plym Valley (Post-Graduate Thesis). SDV139549.

Depicted and described by Robertson.

National Trust and English Heritage, 1994, The Upper Plym Valley: The Management of an Historic Landscape (Report - non-specific). SDV166309.

Thackray, c.(ed)/the upper plym valley: the management of an historic landscape/(1994)/164-5/102.543.

Probert, S. A. J. + Fletcher, M. J., 2002, Plym Valley survey (Report - Survey). SDV350782.

(23/04/2002) SX 58256457. This feature remains as described in 1977. While described as a longhouse it does not possess a cross-passage, there being only a single entrance in the southern side. The eastern end of the building is divided from the remainder by a cross wall but there is no evidence for the division between the shippon and dwelling. Given the narrow approach to the entrance it would seem likely that if stock were kept they were probably housed in the adjacent structures. This building is typical of all alleged and documented medieval structures in this part of the Plym Valley. Rectangular structures containing a single entrance and an associated range of outbuildings are visible at Gutter Tor (SX 56 NE 119), Whittenknowles Rocks (SX 56 NE 112) and Shavercombe Tor (SX 56 NE 129).
The fields described by English Heritage lie within a massive enclosure of at least 100 hectares to the south-east of Great Trowlesworthy Tor which is bounded on the south and east by a bank around 2.0m wide and 0.7m high with an external ditch. Parts of this have been interpreted as a Prehistoric cross dyke (see SX 56 SE 84).

White, P., 2013, Previously Unsurveyed Dartmoor Historic Farmsteads, Little Trowlesworthy (Un-published). SDV352501.

Deserted settlement at 'Spanish Lake Head'.

Ordnance Survey, 2016, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV359352.

'Farmstead' shown on modern mapping.

Various, 2018-2020, PALs Condition Recording forms, UP-HT4 (Worksheet). SDV362781.

(11/03/2020) Condition assessed as good; some vegetation encroachment.

Various, 2018-2020, PALs Condition Recording photographs (Photograph). SDV363073.

Images taken during March 2020 visit.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8148 - The Upper Plym Valley: The Management of an Historic Landscape
• EDV8155 - Plym Valley Survey: EH Project (Feb 2001 - Dec 2002)

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