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Summary - not yet available

Protected Status: None recorded

Other References/Statuses

• Cornwall SURVEY NAME (temporary): NT SMR NO: 91308
• National Mapping Programme (Morph No.): 289.47
• Primary Record No. (1985-2009): 4236

Monument Type(s):

• FIELD SYSTEM (Prehistoric - 500000 BC to 42 AD)

Full description

A particularly fine radial field system lies at the heart of Rosemergy tenement on the northern Penwith coast. This was surveyed in 1984 (h1); a fraction was excavated in 1986 (h2) and revisited by CAU in 1990 (h3). The system comprises substantial lynchets which hug the natural contours as they descend from the lower north east facing slopes of watch croft onto the coastal plain. They range from 0.20 to 2.0m high, many of these lynchets have been stone faced or revetted and thus form a radial pattern of small fields. These boundaries are essentially prehistoric - presumably Iron Age / Romano British in date and were reused over the centuries so that the essential character of the prehistoric farming landscape was preserved. Unlike its neighbour, bosigran farm which lies to the east, there are no extant traces of an associated courtyard house settlement at Rosemergy. The evolutionary character of the system and its radial nature suggests that any such settlement would have stood where the modern hamlet lies today (b2). In 1986 a tiny trench was put through one field boundary on the upper southern part of the system (h2), the exact details of this small excavation are recorded in the full management report (b1), though that all there is suffice to say here is that a buried soil was recorded at very little depth (b1). This field system is in constant use today - it is grazed by the tenant farmers cattle. Recommended for scheduling protection. The system is visible on air photographs (p1-4) and was plotted for the NMP.

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Site history:
1: 1984. VARIOUS PEOPLE / NATIONAL TRUST SURVEY
3: 1990. HERRING, PC AND NOWAKOWSKI, JA / CAU
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RAF, 1946, 3G/209/5040-2 (Photographic Record). SCO10493.

<1> Herring, PC & Nowakowski, JA, 1990, Rosemergy, Morvah West Penwith National Trust Management Report (Bibliographic reference). SCO3583.

RAF, 1951, 540/518/4202 (Photographic Record). SCO13300.

NMR, 1977, SW4136/1/58 (Photographic Record). SCO16235.

NMR, 1977, SW4136/5/453 (Photographic Record). SCO16244.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

Related records: none recorded

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