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Summary

Earthworks relating to former field boundaries, John Acres Copse.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses: none recorded

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• EARTHWORK (Unknown date)

Full description

Rainbird, P. + Newman, P., 06/2014, B3193 Chudleigh Road Re-alignment, Kingsteignton, Teignmouth, Devon (Report - Evaluation). SDV356991.

An earthwork survey undertaken at John Acres Copse in advance of the B3193 Chudleigh Road realignment. Small scale extraction of minerals identified. No finds were recovered.
The swathe of land cut by the course of the proposed road was gently curving and measured 268 metres by 14 metres, with a rise in height of approximately 5.6 metres between the east and western ends. The remains recorded comprised linear hedgebanks with ditches traversing the route and amorphous surface hollows resulting from localised mineral extraction. Woodland clearance was necessary, before the survey could be undertaken. However, due to poor ground conditions, parts of the site had been damaged by forestry operations before the survey took place causing some remains to be incomplete.
At the western end of the route, a hedgebank once separated the woodland from the current asphalt road to Fosterville. This is likely to be an original boundary hedge of this wood and was certainly in use before 1889 when the (Ordnance Survey) OS 1st edition 25-inch map was published. This area had been subject to the dumping of rubbish for perhaps many decades and the bank survived only as a rough scarp of approximately 0.4 metres high. The area immediately east of the bank had been disturbed by a very large animal burrow but just beyond the disturbed area was a hollow cut into the ground, which probably represented localised surface extraction of mineral resources. The section that was affected by the new road was approximately 25 metres wide and up to 1.5 metres deep though its edges had been smoothed by time. The hollow extended some distance to the north into the woodlands. The north-south hedgebank was abandoned sometime after 1889, when it was shown on the OS map as demarcating an area of woodland on the west side and a pasture field on the
east. The latter had since been allowed to develop as an additional area of woodland and the B3193 Chudleigh Road re-alignment, two sides had merged. The bank was 2.8 metres wide by 0.6 metres high. Very slight vestiges of a ditch survived on the eastern side though the whole earthwork had been much disturbed by animal burrowing. Two clear escarpments, demarcated the sinuous edges of a hollow near the eastern end of the copse. The remains almost certainly represented further surface mineral extraction. At the far eastern end of the copse a series of linear ditches with banks originally formed a triangular layout of 44 metres by 30 metres. This earthwork was recorded on the 1889 OS map without any annotation but was associated with a water-filled earthwork hollow just south of and outside the route of the road, which also survived. A deep ditch, with a bank on its south side, ran SE to NW for 38 metres before turning at an approximate curved right angle for 28 metres, then turned back on itself to close the triangle. The ditch was up to 4 metres wide and 0.7 metres deep. It was best preserved on the east side.
The earthwork survey and to a lesser extent the watching brief provided further detail to earthworks in the copse areas that had previously been recognised. Historic mapping shows that the wooded areas are plantations and the remains of extraction pits further support the conclusion that this had been a mostly open landscape in post-medieval times. The majority of the earthworks relate to field boundaries which historic OS mapping shows as continuing beyond the wooded areas.

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

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV6542 - Earthwork Survey, B3193 Chudleigh Road Re-alignment, Kingsteignton, Teignmouth, Devon (Ref: ACD511/2/0)
• EDV6545 - Watching Brief, B3193 Chudleigh Road Re-alignment, Kingsteignton, Teignmouth, Devon (Ref: ACD511/2/0)

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