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Summary

A possible courtyard house situated in the east of the settlement to the west of Bosigran.

Protected Status: None recorded

Other References/Statuses

• Cornwall SURVEY NAME (temporary): NT 94461
• National Mapping Programme (Morph No.): 290.23
• OS No. (OS Quarter-sheet and OS No.): SW43NW 8.1
• Primary Record No. (1985-2009): 30696.30
• SMR No. (OS Quarter-sheet and SMR No.): SW43NW 61.3

Monument Type(s):

• COURTYARD HOUSE? (Early Iron Age to Romano British - 800 BC to 409 AD)

Full description

The OS survey at 1:2500 in 1961 records the south and east sides of a possible courtyard house in the east of the settlement at Bosigran (30696). The remains, incorporated in the present field system, comprise very wide walls up to 1.7m high. Within this is a platform of earth and stones up to 1.0m high. On or built into this platform are fragmentary and overgrown walls including two rectangular compartments to the north and the possible remains of a hut circle (30696.31) to the south. The site has obviously been added to or altered in fairly recent times and its original character is not indentifiable (h1). Pool and Weatherhill in 1979 record a possible courtyard house with two comparatively recent crows built into it, one rectangular, one D-shaped. The outline is clear but any internal features are difficult to distinguish. The remains may represent the western half of a courtyard house cut in half along its length by the present field wall. There is nothing visible on the eastern side of the wall (b6). Weatherhill in 1982 gives the measurements of this feature as 32m by 12m, with a general height of 0.9m but reaching 1.5m at the north end (h3, b7). The site was surveyed at 1:1250 by the CCRA/NT in 1982 (h4, b8-b10) and visited in 1986 by Herring (h5, b11). He describes two sub-circular rooms, roughly defined by low banks up to 0.8m high at the south end of a mound approx 37.5m long, and 13m wide. To their north are modern crows, the northern of which (30696.32) re-uses a prehistoric round house over 6.5m in diameter and the southern (30696.33) may also have prehistoric origins. A detailed survey is required to make better sense of these remains although it may provisionally be accepted that this is indeed a courtyard house. The site is visible on air photographs (p1-p3) and was plotted by the NMP.

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Site history:
1: 1961. PITCHER, GH / OS
2: 1975. QUINNELL, NV / OS
3: 1975. WEATHERHILL, C / CCRA
4: 1982. NDJ ET AL / CCRA, NT
5: 1986. HERRING, PC / CAU
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<1> Hirst, FC, 19--, Archaeological Notes on West Penwith (Unpublished document). SCO3593.

NMR, 1979, SW4237/7/472 (Photographic Record). SCO16584.

<2> UNKNOWN, 1937, UNKNOWN TITLE, APPENDIX (Article in Journal). SCO7286.

CAU, 1986, F6/69 (Photographic Record). SCO16975.

<3> Hirst, FC, 1937, Courtyard House Sites in West Cornwall, 84N, 97 (Bibliographic reference). SCO3594.

CAU, 1988, F15/117-122 (Photographic Record). SCO17161.

<4> Ordnance Survey, 1970s, 1:10,000 OS Map (Cartographic materials). SCO4045.

<5> Russell, V, 1971, West Penwith Survey, 54 (Bibliographic reference). SCO4314.

<6> Pool, PAS & Weatherhill, C, 1979, A Report to the National Trust: Iron Age Sites at Bosigran (Bibliographic reference). SCO5141.

<7> Weatherhill, C, 1982, Courtyard Houses of West Penwith. A Survey, 22-24 (Bibliographic reference). SCO5029.

<8> Cornwall Archaeological Unit, Field Drawing (GRE), GRE 212, 26, 30 (Cartographic materials). SCO5089.

<9> Cornwall Archaeological Unit, 198-, Drawing Archive, Hanging (GRH), GRH 683, SW 4236 NW, 4236SW; 68249-11 (Cartographic materials). SCO5088.

<10> CAU, 1984, Field Survey Context Card, 253 (Bibliographic reference). SCO5175.

<11> Herring, PC, 1987, Bosigran, Zennor, 102-108 (Bibliographic reference). SCO3569.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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