See important guidance on the use of this record.

If you have any comments or new information about this record, please email us.

Summary

Also recorded as Shavercombe Foot in the past, this farm is thought to have dated to the 18th or 19th century, although could have medieval origins. Longhouse-type dwelling, with lean-to outhouses on either side of the door.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1015745: Historic settlement, fields and tin openwork at Shavercombe Foot 400m north of Shavercombe Tor

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX56NE132
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 438873
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX56NE/235
• Old SAM Ref: 24228

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• FARMSTEAD (Early Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD to 1750 AD (Between))
• LONGHOUSE? (Early Medieval to XIX - 1066 AD? to 1899 AD (Between))

Full description

Royal Air Force, 1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2494, 4128-9 (Aerial Photograph). SDV147533.

Linehan, C. D., 1966, Deserted Sites and Rabbit-Warrens on Dartmoor, Devon, 124-5, table 2 (Article in Serial). SDV307246.

A deserted site possibly known as Shavercombe Foot, consisting of one building and enclosures no 104.

Haynes, R. G., 1966-1969, Ruined Sites on Dartmoor, 124 plan, visited 28/6/1966 (Un-published). SDV150434.

Shavercombe Foot. SX592 665. A longhouse, possibly cross-passage, with upper room and two lean-to outhouses on either side of the door. A small enclosure attached and a piece of wall on the west and south-west sides. The tinners heaps of Shavercombe are just beyond this wall.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1979, SX56NE132 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV137249.

(13/02/1979) Hentor, Cottage or Little Hentor, a Warren worker's house lies on a flattish area between Shavercombe Brook and another unnamed brook. The longhouse type building is 16.3 metres by 4.0 metres internally with one subdivision. The drystone walling is 0.8 metres thick and up to 1.2 metres high. Two small yards or outshuts are attached to the southwest side where there is also a levelled plot. A field of 0.7 hectares surrounds the site and is limited by the two streams. The field bank is 1.5 metres wide and 0.8 metres high with an outer facing of stone in places.
Surveyed at 1:10 000 on PFD.

Price, D. G., 1980, The Moorland Plym, 86, fig 2b (Article in Serial). SDV254604.

Almost certainly the home of a farm labourer.

National Monuments Record, 1983, NMR SF2134, 47 (Aerial Photograph). SDV238551.

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

Bank attached to southeast corner of longhouse travelling south. Further bank attached to centre of southwest wall travelling northwest for a short distance then turning back on itself and travelling south to approximately SX59346652, junction with a south-west by north-east ditch.

Butler, J., 1994, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Three - The South-West (Monograph). SDV137656.

Depicted by Butler.

Robertson, J. G., 1994, The Archaeology of the Upper Plym Valley (Post-Graduate Thesis). SDV139549.

Depicted and described by Robertson.

English Heritage, 2000, DCMS Schedule (Schedule Document). SDV320762.

(Estimated date 1999) SX 59356656. The remains of a settlement, possibly of medieval origin, but most likely 18th and 19th century in date. The site also includes at least 2 fields, part of a tin openwork and a number of prospecting features. The settlement comprising a small, well-preserved two-compartment rectangular structure with two external annexes and attached yard. Walls are of drystone, 1.2 metres wide, and faces are clearly visible, particularly on the north-east side of the north-west compartment. An internal partition lies 13.2 metres from the north-west end and a depression at the south-west end may denote a doorway between the two compartments. There are two possible external entrances, both into the larger north-western compartment. That in the north-east wall is indicted by a 0.9 metre wide gap 3.8 metres from the north-western end. The other, more convincing entry point is flanked by regular masonry on the south-east side of a 0.8 metre wide gap in the south-west wall, 7 metres from the south-west end.
Attached to the outer face of the south-west wall on either side of the entrance are two small square annexes. The larger one on the north-west side of the entrance encloses an area 2.5 metres by 3 metres and is defined by a 1.2 metre wide wall. A gap in the north-west wall may have provided access. The smaller annexe on the south-east side of the entrance is 1.8 metres square and defined by a 0.6 metre wide wall.
A small yard attached to the south-east end is 15 metres long by 14 metres wide and is defined by a 2.6 metre wide, 0.3 metre high rubble wall. Leading north-east from the north-east side of this yard is a boundary bank 1.5 metres wide, 0.2 metres high. An associated ditch lies immediately south-east of this, and is 2 metres wide, 0.3 metres deep. The northern end of this boundary is truncated by the openwork. The settlement lies within another truncated field, 95 metres by at least 125 metres, defined by a 3 metre wide rubble wall, up to 0.5 metres high. Within the field are a number of shallow gullies, probably prospecting features. This settlement may be Hentor Cottage, the residence of a farm labourer in the 19th century. However, it is likely to have had an earlier origin.

Probert, S. A. J. + Fletcher, M. J., 2002, Plym Valley survey (Report - Survey). SDV350782.

(23/04/2002) SX 59316655. A two-roomed rectangular building with attached out houses and associated field system. The building, with coursed boulder walls, measures 16.5 metres east to west by 4.0 metres and possesses an entrance in the south side. The interior is subdivided into two unequal parts, the smaller, 4.0 metres long, lying to the east. The entrance is flanked by two outshuts that adjoin the main wall of the structure. A small sub-rectangular garden plot lies to the south-east. Traces of a contemporary field system containing at least three fields lie to the north, east and south of the buildings. The enclosure banks and walls appear to make use of the surrounding tinworks rather than being cut by them suggesting a relatively late origin for the fields at least.
These features lie within the holding of Hentor Warren but probably relate to the agricultural use of the land prior to the late 18th century after which the area became a warren and was managed from Ditsworthy, on the opposite bank of the Plym.

White, P., 2013, Previously Unsurveyed Dartmoor Historic Farmsteads (Un-published). SDV352501.

Shavercombe Foot included in list. No further information provided.

Ordnance Survey, 2016, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV359352.

The house and associated enclosures/outbuildings are depicted on the modern mapping.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8148 - The Upper Plym Valley: The Management of an Historic Landscape
• EDV8155 - Plym Valley Survey

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.