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Summary

A possible rectilinear ditched enclosure of prehistoric to Roman date was visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs of 1990 to the north-west of Oak Park on the lower slopes of a west-facing hill overlooking the Culm valley, east of Huxham.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: 1047923

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• NATURAL FEATURE? (Unknown date)
• RECTILINEAR ENCLOSURE (Early Iron Age to Roman - 700 BC to 409 AD (Between))

Full description

Devon County Council, 1990, DAP 11949, DAP 11949/01-02 25-JUL-1990 (TP) (Aerial Photograph). SDV358830.

A U-shaped cropmark of a possible ditch was visible.

Hegarty, C. + Knight, S. + Sims, R., 2014-2015, East and Mid Devon River Catchments National Mapping Programme Project (Interpretation). SDV356883.

A possible ditched enclosure of prehistoric to Roman date was visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs of 1990 to the north-west of Oak Park on the lower slopes of a west-facing hill overlooking the Culm valley, east of Huxham. The cropmark of the possible ditch was less than 1 metre wide and defined a splayed U shaped feature between 25 and 30 metres wide, possibly the southern end of a rectilinear ditched enclosure. A northern edge to the possible enclosure was not visible, but may have been obscured by the complex and dense pattern of natural geological crack cropmarks of probable periglacial origin.
An alternative interpretation is that the cropmark of the possible enclosure ditch is simply an extension of the natural frost cracking pattern, and is therefore non-archaeological in origin. It is possible that geophysical survey could further define the character of the cropmarks.
Many of the aerial photographs consulted by the survey are copies of DAPs held by the Historic England Archive. In some cases these have been recorded as separate sources. This is because variations in the way the prints have been processed could result in images on which archaeological features are visible to a greater or lesser degree.

Sources / Further Reading

SDV356883	Interpretation: Hegarty, C. + Knight, S. + Sims, R.. 2014-2015. East and Mid Devon River Catchments National Mapping Programme Project. AC Archaeology Report. Digital.
	Linked documents:1
SDV358830	Aerial Photograph: Devon County Council. 1990. DAP 11949. Devon Aerial Photograph. Photograph (Paper). DAP 11949/01-02 25-JUL-1990 (TP). [Mapped feature: #72353 ]

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV6530 - The East and Mid-Devon Rivers Catchment NMP project (Ref: ACD613)

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