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Summary

Very little stonework remains in this hut circle of 6 metres diameter with a rubble bank 1.4 metre wide by 0.5 metres high at the Assycombe Brook settlement. A breach on the south-east side is likely to have been the entrance.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1017981: Stone alignment, hut circle settlement, medieval long house and post-medieval farmstead at Assycombe

Other References/Statuses

• MPP Archaeological Item Dataset: 144159
• National Monuments Record: SX68SE1
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 443779
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX68SE/17
• Old SAM Ref: 28655
• Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division: SX68SE1

Monument Type(s) and Dates

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

Full description

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

'Hut Circle' shown on 19th century map.

Turner, J. R., 1976, Ancient Monuments on Forestry Commission Land. Fernworthy and Bellever (Report - non-specific). SDV351823.

Fernworthy Plantation. Assacombe 5C.
Hut Circle, 6 metres diameter. Very ruined with very low stone wall. Not investigated. Has been planted over.
February 1976. Two trees growing in wall. Eight posts ringing clearance zone, 9 trees standing inside. Trees outside post ring are within falling distance of hut.
Included in 1955 Spooner and Dixon report (A) Region south of the Teign (Assacombe and Lowton), Site No. 14.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1976-78, SX68SE1 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV278477.

Turner, J., 1978, Report of Work Carried Out by the Forestry Commission since January 1976 (Report - non-specific). SDV351816.

Trees removed from inside the clearance zone.

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

Not visible on 1946 RAF photos due to tree cover.

Gerrard, S., 1990-2002, Monument Protection Programme. Archaeological Item Dataset., MPP 144159 (Report - Survey). SDV277946.

(29/04/1997) Hut circle forming part of settlement at Assycombe. Diameter 6 metres, rubble bank wall 1.4 metres wide, 0.5 metres high. Internal area 28.26 square metres.

Butler, J., 1991, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Two - The North, 157, Map 35, Site 5 (Monograph). SDV219155.

Hut circle at 'Assycombe Brook settlement'.

Smith, N., 1992, Condition Survey of Identified Archaeology with Woodland Areas 1992 (Un-published). SDV351819.

Fernworthy. Assycombe 5C.
Site visit 27th May 1992. Hut circle adjacent to track. Condition stable Present ground cover grass and gorse. Vegetation managed. No trees within makred out area. Suggested that management regime be continued. Photo.

Royal Commission for the Historical Monuments of England, 1993-1998, Dartmoor Royal Forest Project, S. Probert (Report - Survey). SDV346608.

(03/06/1995) SX 65908268. A poorly preserved hut circle on the W facing slope above the right bank of the Assycombe Brook within Fernworthy Forest. The hut lies within the former fields of Assycombe Farm but does not seem to have been reused in the post medieval period like the three huts (SX 68 SE 2 and 91) to the N. the area has in the past been overplanted with conifers but has been clear felled and is now maintained as an open space by the Forestry Commission.
The hut is terraced into the slope and measures 6.1m in diameter with walls 1.6m wide and 0.6m high. A gap in the S side probably marks the site of the entrance. A large stoney mound immediately to the NE of the hut is probably clearance material from the surrounding area though it may possibly represent the disturbed platform of a further hut.

Dartmoor National Park Authority, 1996, Condition Survey of Identified Archaeology within Woodland Areas 1996 (Un-published). SDV351820.

Fernworthy. Assycombe Group 5C.
Site visit 27th September 1996. Site marked by eight posts, all of which are falling over and need to be consolidated.

Newman, P., 2013, Fernworthy Forest Sites Survey, 22 (Un-published). SDV351708.

This hut is likely to have been one that was investigated by Burnard and Baring Gould and which Burnard describes in his notes as having a trackline to west and east, that is the vestiges of enclosure walls that are attached to the hut. The hut survives today basically as a circular earthwork bank with little stonework remaining. The interior diameter is approximately 6.8 metres and the bank is up to 2.8 metres wide and 0.4 metres high. A breach in the bank on the south-east side is likely to have been the entrance. Rotten stumps and roots from two trees that were felled sometime ago provide evidence of the lack of concern for these monuments at the time the plantation was created.

Newman, P., 2013, The Archaeology of Fernworthy Forest, Dartmoor, Devon (Report - Survey). SDV351784.

Ordnance Survey, 2014, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV355681.

Hut Circle marked.

English Heritage, 2014, National Heritage List for England, 1017981 (National Heritage List for England). SDV355683.

[Part of] stone alignment, hut circle settlement, medieval long house and post-medieval farmstead at Assycombe.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV6203 - Archaeological Survey of Fernworthy Forest
• EDV6216 - Condition Surveys of Ancient Monuments on Forestry Commission Land
• EDV7389 - Fernworthy Forest condition survey 1996
• EDV7410 - Fernworthy Forest condition survey 1992
• EDV8409 - Dartmoor Royal Forest Project

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