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Summary

Trackways possibly of medieval to 19th century date are visible as earthworks and cropmarks on aerial photographs of the 1940s onwards and visualisations derived from lidar data captured between 1998 and 2017 on the south-west facing slopes at Long Down and Cann Wood, Sparkwell.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses: none recorded

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• TRACKWAY (Early Medieval to XIX - 1066 AD to 1840 AD (Between))

Full description

South West Heritage Trust, 1838-1848, Digitised Tithe Maps and Transcribed Apportionments (Cartographic). SDV359954.

The visible earthworks do not correspond with any track depicted on the Tithe Map for Plympton St Mary.

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

The visible earthworks do not correspond with any track depicted on the Ordnance Survey 1880s 25inch First Edition map.

Royal Air Force, 1946, RAF/106G/UK/1190, RAF/106G/UK/1190 RP 3230-3231 27-FEB-1946 (Aerial Photograph). SDV363067.

Linear and curvilinear hollows are visible as cropmarks and earthworks. Multiple roughly parallel hollows are visible towards the south of Long Down.

Environment Agency, 1998-2017, LiDAR DTM data (1m resolution) EA: South Devon Coast to Dartmoor, LIDAR SX5358-SX5359 Environment Agency DTM 01-JAN-1998 to 31-MAY-2017 (Cartographic). SDV361470.

Slight hollows are visible as earthworks.

Google, 2019, Google Earth Pro, EARTH.GOOGLE.COM 22-JUN-2018 ACCESSED 17-SEP-2019 (Aerial Photograph). SDV363088.

Slight cropmarks of hollows are visible.

Hegarty, C., Knight, S. and Sims, R., 2019-2020, The South Devon Coast to Dartmoor Aerial Investigation and Mapping Survey. Area 2, Avon Valley to Plymouth (AI&M, formerly NMP) (Interpretation). SDV362982.

Curvilinear hollows are visible as earthworks and cropmarks on aerial photographs of the 1940s onwards and visualisations derived from lidar data captured between 1998 and 2017, crossing the south-west facing slopes at Long Down and Cann Wood, Sparkwell for approximately 1 kilometre.
The visible cropmarks and earthworks do not correspond with any features depicted on the 19th and early 20th century maps available to the survey. Circa 400m of the visible earthworks are located under Cann Wood and identifiable only from lidar derived visualisations. To the south-east of Cann Wood, circa 450m of the curvilinear hollows are located within the plot of rough ground named as Long Down on the Ordnance Survey 1880s First Edition 25inch map.
The hollows are interpreted as the remains of a trackway or trackways that predate the establishment of the plantation of Cann Wood and the enclosure of the plots to the south, the rough ground and furze of Long Down surviving in an unimproved state into the 20th century due to the presence of the trackway earthworks.
A multi-stranded, almost braided section of trackway that comprises much of the southernmost 250m of the route is not identifiable as a cropmark on images taken later that the 1940s, but the remainder of the probable route remains visible as a subtle cropmark for much of its length on aerial photographs of the 1960s and 1980s and digital images derived from aerial photographs of 2018 and as slight earthworks on visualisations derived from lidar data captured between 1998 and 2017.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8098 - The South Devon Coast to Dartmoor Aerial Investigation and Mapping (formerly NMP) Survey, Area 2, Avon Valley to Plymouth (Ref: ACD2040)

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