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Summary

Abandoned post medieval field boundaries in the area of Youldon Brook. The banks are massively constructed and form a mostly regular pattern apart from where re-using medieval features.

Location

Protected Status

• SHINE: Earthwork and structural remains of a bronze age settlement along a reave as well as a medieval field system and two farmsteads and post-medieval or earlier tin streamworking remains and trial pits on Cudlipptown Down

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX57NE34
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 439667
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX57NE/50
• Pastscape: 439667

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• FIELD SYSTEM (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1750 AD (Between))

Full description

Royal Air Force, 1964, RAF/F65/58/6399, 038 (Aerial Photograph). SDV255418.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1979, SX57NE34 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV278331.

(23/10/1979) Cropmarks of a group of rectangular fields at SX 555799.
Eleven hectares of rectilinear fields cover a slight NW slope above Youldon Brook. The AP shows a number to be field strips from 15m to 40m wide and from 150m to 180m long.
They are difficult to see on the ground which is clear of stone and under grass but covered with ant-hill type hummocks. It is likely that the fields are of Medieval or later origin and associated with the longhouse settlements a short distance to the SW, SX 57 NW 61 & 62 (MDV4161). Area delineated on 1:10 000.

Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, 1985, Aerial Photograph Project (Dartmoor) - Dartmoor Pre-NMP (Cartographic). SDV319854.

No photographs available.

Newman, P., 2004, Merrivale Range Baseline Condition Survey, 18/08/2004 (Report - Survey). SDV346874.

Centred SX 554797 are a number of mostly abandoned field boundaries of post-Medieval origin. The majority of the banks are massively constructed and measure up to 3.0 metres wide and 1.0 metres high. They form a semi-regular pattern except where they reuse the courses of earlier, Medieval, features. The strips noted by the Ordnance Survey in 1979 are barely visible on the ground and appear to conform to the rectilinear field system and not the earlier, underlying, medieval landscape.
These fields appear to represent the last active phase of enclosure in this area and are associated with the newtake boundary that encloses the Youldon Brook and the stream to its south.

Newman, P., 2018, Archaeological Sites within Merrivale Training Area, Dartmoor National Park, Devon: A condition survey on behalf of Defence Infrastructure Organisation, 07/03/2018 (Report - Survey). SDV361635.

Abandoned post medieval field boundaries in the area of Youldon Brook. The banks are massively constructed and form a mostly regular pattern apart from where re-using medieval features.
Condition of the features is fair, although in gradual decline due to erosion of abandoned banks.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV7441 - Condition survey of the archaeological sites of Merrivale Training Area
• EDV7570 - Condition survey of Merrivale Range training area
• EDV8713 - Merrivale Range: Monument Baseline Condition Survey

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