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Summary

Hut Circle '1' situated on a little rise in north-west corner of the enclosed hut settlement excavated in 1954-6

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1003828: Hut circles and two enclosures on Dean Moor, near River Avon

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX66NE/73/2
• Old SAM County Ref: 282/1

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• HUT CIRCLE (Constructed, Late Neolithic to Late Bronze Age - 3000 BC to 701 BC (Between))

Full description

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

Enclosure and 'Hut Circles' shown on 19th century map.

Fox, A., 1957, Excavations at Dean Moor (1954-1956), 37-9 fig.6-7, pl.111 (Article in Serial). SDV167114.

Hut 1 is situated on a little rise in north-west corner of the pound. It had a low external wall on the south side, extending 15 metres downhill towards Hut 5A. Not a true circle. Walls were faced with boulders up to 1.22 metres long, laid horizontally and not bedded into the natural soil, with a core of small stones.
Entrance on western side, badly ruined by collapse of one of the transverse side-slabs. The entry was cobbled and the approach paved, extending for 1.8 metres outside the hut and screened by three boulders from the north.
Inside the floor deposits were of two kinds: on the upper side beneath peaty soil and stone debris was a 76 millimetre occupation layer above the yellow subsoil with a consolidated surface of small grits, some paving and a patch of cobbling towards the back of the hut, making a fairly clean, firm and level floor. On the lower side the occupation soil deepened, was darker and greasier, containing much charcoal and including paving stones set unevenly at varying levels.
The hearth was placed in south-west quarter of hut, with two shallow pits near it filled with dark soil and small stones. Pit 2 had a posthole (no 4) carefully packed. Pits were not hardened by fire, nor were any stones baked. May have been cooking holes or perhaps soak-aways. In this area a small cupboard or niche had been built into the wall at floor level, built out of three slabs. Its floor was of small granite pebbles. North of the hut door was a second wedge-shaped recess formed by two large slabs set transversely in the wall, no cover stone but not large enough for a sleeping recess. Patch of yellow clay found inside suggested it may have been a store. Similar patches are trodden into the floor. Perhaps potters clay waste or sodden sherds which had returned to clay.
Finds: pottery base (fig.21, no.13) and three small sherds; two grooved and one plain whetstone (fig.23, no.1,2,5); six flints, two worked; thirteen water worn stones from the river and suitable for heating, several scraps of shale.
One flint blade assigned by Dr Stone to secondary Neolithic culture was found under the edge of the hut wall. Red sand-stone whetstone (fig.23, no.5) found resting against the wall base in the north-east corner.
Hut roof carried on ten or eleven uprights; position shown by the postholes. No.8 may have supported a smoke louvre over the hearth, a piece of plain pottery was found at the bottom.

Butler, J., 1993, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Four - The South-East, 147-150, Map 57, Figure 57.16 (Monograph). SDV337765.

Hut Circle '1' of 6.2-7.1 metres in diameter at 'Brockhill Foot West enclosure' with an entrance to the north-west is connected to Hut Circle '5A' by a substantial wall. It has several unusual features, such as the line of slabs protecting the entrance outside and a recess built into the wall left of the doorway on entering, perhaps a clay store as a patch of material was found within. A second smaller cupboard like that found in the Cullercombe Head hut is still visible at ground level on the lower side which the excavator suggested could have been a household shrine.

Bluesky International Ltd/Getmapping PLC, 2015-2017, 2015-2017 Aerial Photographs (Aerial Photograph). SDV361462.

Visible on aerial photograph.

Ordnance Survey, 2020, MasterMap 2020 (Cartographic). SDV363413.

Hut circle shown on modern mapping.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds

• FDV3205 - POT (Neolithic - 4000 BC to 2201 BC)

Associated Events

• EDV8466 - Excavations in the Avon Valley

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