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Summary

Unenclosed Bronze Age hut circle settlement in a clearing in Fernworthy Forest comprising seven hut circles and two cairns. All are in very poor condition due to past episodes of conifer plantation.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1017986: Unenclosed stone hut circle settlement, two cairns and section of field system 330m north east of Hemstone Rocks

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX68SW26
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 443951
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX68SW/3
• Old SAM County Ref: 960
• Old SAM Ref: 28674
• Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division: SX68SW26

Monument Type(s) and Dates

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

Full description

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

Eight 'Hut Circles' shown on 19th century map.

Baring Gould, S., 1901, 7th Report of the Dartmoor Exploration Committee, 137 (Article in Serial). SDV249499.

A cist, three ruined cairns and three hut circles 200 yds north of Hemstone Rocks. In the cist, of which two side stones remain, a flint flake was found.
The most westerley cairn is reduced to a 3 ft diameter circle of small stones, and within it was found a pit containing charcoal and burnt bones. Charcoal has also been found in the other two cairns.
A flint scraper and a pot boiler were found in one of the hut circles.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1950, SX68SW26 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV243437.

The area occupied by these hut circles is under afforestation. A search was made and the probable remains of a number of huts were found. These huts had all been severely mutilated during the tree planting operations and not possible to identify individually due to dense undergrowth. (1950)
The undergrowth has now been cleared in this area and the remains of these hut circles are sufficiently well-defined to be retained on the plan. (1951)

Dartmoor National Park Authority + Forestry Commission + Dartmoor Preservation Association, 1976, Conservation of Ancient Monuments. The Report of a Working Party, J. Turner (Report - non-specific). SDV248248.

Hut circles recorded at SX64798381, SX64818382, SX64838378, SX64838379, SX64848380, SX64878381, and SX64868382. (With slight adjustment in NGR's this group of hut circles accorded with six of the seven published hut circles).

Grinsell, L. V., 1978, Dartmoor Barrows, 145 (Article in Serial). SDV273224.

(Visited November 1975) SX 64868385. Ring cairn, disturbed; planted. Diameter 5.7m., height, slight. SX 6484 8385. Ring of low cairn, disturbed; planted. Diameter 5.5m., height 0.5m. At SX 649838 approx, a third cairn.

Gerrard, S., 1990-2002, Monument Protection Programme. Archaeological Item Dataset., MPP 144147 (Report - Survey). SDV277946.

(28/04/1997) Unenclosed hut settlement. Hut circle diameters (A 7.32 metres, B 5.49metres, C 4.57metres, D 4.27metres, E 3.66metres).

Butler, J., 1991, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Two - The North, 157, Map 35, Site 7 (Monograph). SDV219155.

'Hemstone Rocks' settlement. Eight huts, 3.0 to 6.5 metres in diameter can be found in small clearings in the plantation. All were overplanted which caused considerable damage to them. Several short lengths of field walls are also visible disappearing into the trees.

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

(02/08/1995) Centred SX 64818380. A group of seven hut circles, a possible cist, and several fragments of contemporary field system lie in a series of clearings in a coniferous plantation 200 metres north-north-east of Hemstone Rocks. All the features have been severely damaged by past forestry activities and the two huts on the east margin of the site are still overplanted. The huts (detailed below) are generally small with internal diameters in the range 3.1 metres to 5.5 metres and do not possess obvious entrances. A further hut depicted by Butler (1991) is situated at SX 64858384 in the north-east corner of the site. It is visible as a very disturbed partial stony ring 6.5 metres in diameter with an undulating raised interior and may represent one of the ring cairns described by the Sites and Monuments Register. Its mutilated form precludes a more definite interpretation.
The cairn described by Grinsell (1978) lies at SX 64768380 on the extreme western edge of the site. It consists of a crude circle of stones 1.7 metres in overall diameter with a level interior. There is no trace of a cist nor any mound material. Low stony banks around 1.2 metres wide and up to 0.6 metres high link several of the huts but overall form no discernible pattern.
Details of hut circles: all dimensions are in metres; internal diameter; wall width; wall height; remarks:-
SX 64778379, 5.5, 0.9, 0.5, E wall partially destroyed.
SX 64798381, 5.0, 0.9, 0.5, E wall partially destroyed.
SX 64808377, 3.3, 0.9, 0.4.
SX 64818377, 3.1, 0.9, 0.8, disturbed by forestry - now almost square in shape.
SX 64818378, 3.2, 1.4, 0.5, almost square.
SX 64858380, 3.6, 1.2, 0.4, overplanted.
SX 64848381, 4.5, 0.9, 0.25, incomplete circle of boulders and slabs, overplanted.

English Heritage, 2005-2008, Prehistoric Survey Information (Cartographic). SDV345521.

Hut circles shown on survey.

Ordnance Survey, 2013, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV350786.

All of the hut circles except the most south-western of the group, discovered in 2013 by Newman are depicted on the modern mapping.

Newman, P., 2013, The Archaeology of Fernworthy Forest, Dartmoor, Devon, 34, Fig 30 (Report - Survey). SDV351784.

On a south-east facing slope in the upper reaches of the South Teign valley is a clearing containing seven hut circles and two cairns. All are in very poor condition having been exposed to up to three episodes of conifer planting. It is also likely that the huts were of a less robust type than others within the project area and that the two cairns were thoroughly disturbed, even before the Dartmoor Exploration Committee explored the site in July 1900 (Baring Gould 1901). They reported excavating one hut circle from which they retrieved a flint scraper and a cooking stone but also remains of a cist and three ruined cairns. Unfortunately, their site description leaves much doubt as to the locations of these features, which cannot be identified with certainty.

National Monument Record, 2014, Pastscape, 443951 (Website). SDV355682.

Seven hut circles, a possible cist, a possible ring cairn and fragments of contemporary walling 200 yards North of Hemstone Rocks. NMR No. SX68SW26. Record last updated: N/A

Historic England, 2023, National Heritage List for England, 1017986 (National Heritage List for England). SDV365228.

The monument includes seven stone hut circles, two cairns and an area of field system situated on a gentle east facing slope overlooking the valley of the South Teign River. The hut circles survive as banks each surrounding an internal circular area which varies from 8 to 28.26 square metres. The height of the surrounding walls varies between 0.3 metres and 0.6 metres. Two of the huts have visible doorways and the walls are of orthostatic or rubble bank construction. The cairns lie immediately north of the settlement and both were partly excavated by the Dartmoor Exploration Committee in 1901. The western structure is a ring cairn and survives as a 6.2 metres diameter central area surrounded by a 0.5 metres wide and 0.4 metres high bank. The second cairn lies close to the first and survives as an 8 metres diameter and 0.8 metres high mound, with two separate pits cut into its surface. These pits are probably the result of the work carried out by the Dartmoor Exploration Committee.

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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