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Summary

Enclosure 'D' (Butler) within Bronze Age hut circle settlement with five internal hut circles

Location

Protected Status

• SHINE: Bronze Age settlement consisting of three linked enclosures with twelve hut circles south of the Avon Dam Reservoir, parts of the site have been destroyed by quarrying

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX66SE1
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX66SE/48
• Pastscape: 441740
• SHINE Candidate (Yes)

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• ENCLOSURE (Constructed, Bronze Age - 2200 BC to 701 BC (Between))

Full description

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1950 - 1977, SX66SE1, SX66SE1 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV178128.

Hut circles and enclosures on Gripper's Hill, Avon Valley. Four enclosures and eleven hut circles.
Enclosure 4; very fragmentary wall of turf-covered stones in poor condition. This enclosure measures 59.0 meters by 55.0 meters.
Huts G,H,I; (diameter 5.5 meters) remains only, walls of turf covered stones. Within enclosure 4.

Fox, A., 1955, Huts and Enclosures on Gripper's Hill, in the Avon Valley, Dartmoor, 55-62 (Article in Serial). SDV178125.

Full report on the excavation undertaken here during the construction of the Avon dam. There are the remains of four enclosures, containing ten or more huts, three or four outlying huts in poor condition. Most of the enclosure walls are so ruined they appear only as an untidy spread of loose stones.
Enclosure 4; consists of two or three lines of stones. Bronze Age.

Butler, J., 1993, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Four - The South-East, 145-7, Map 57, Figure 57.15 (Monograph). SDV337765.

'Gripper's Hill' settlement was planned in 1954 before construction of the Avon Dam. It consists of six enclosures and numerous hut circles.
Enclosure 'D' and what appears to be a western extension contains the majority of huts, most of them less than 4 metres in diameter. This part of the perimeter wall is confused and perhaps was never clearly defined. There are six buildings in this enclosure.
Enclosure 'E' which interrupts the south end of Enclosure 'D' is small but has lost a complete section of wall to the east.

Ordnance Survey, 2020, MasterMap 2020 (Cartographic). SDV363413.

Enclosure shown on modern mapping with five hut circles.

National Monuments Record, 2020, Pastscape, 441740, SX66SE1 (Website). SDV363416.

Field Investigation on 30 th June 1977. On the south slopes of Gripper's Hill at 310-325 metres OD is a settlement which consists of three contiguous enclosures containing eight huts, with a further four huts to the south-west.
Enclosure No IV has four internal huts, another contiguous with the inner face of the enclosure and one contiguous with the outer face; there are no yards. There is no evidence of clearance in Enclosures III and IV, but some may have been attempted in No II. All the huts are in a very ruinous state and are probably Type 1. The internal diameters range from 3.0 metres to 6.0 metres, with an average of 4.0 metres; the walls are on average 1.0 metre thick. Only hut No 3 has a visible entrance, on the east.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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