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Summary

Hentor Warren contains 58 pillow mounds and four vermin traps. The warren is of late 18th or early 19th century origin and occupies the area of the former Hentor Farm. The warren was operated as part of Ditsworthy Warren until the 1930s. The last warren to come into use, and the first to be abandoned. Bounded by the River Plym, Hentor Brook, two boundstones and a line to Mill Corner blowing house. Approximately 450 acres. Probably abandoned in 1820's as separate warren. Not mentioned in Tithe Map and apportionment.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1019082: Multi-period remains at Hentor Warren

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX56NE133
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 438876
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX56NE/236
• Old SAM Ref Revised: 24230(P)
• Old SAM Ref: 24115
• Old SAM Ref: 24218(PART)
• Old SAM Ref: 24219

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• RABBIT WARREN (XIX to World War II - 1807 AD to 1939 AD (Between))

Full description

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV137816.

For vermin traps, see sx56ne/112,114,246,247,248,249.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV137823.

Osa=sx56ne128.

Royal Air Force, 1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2494, 3129-31 (Aerial Photograph). SDV147533.

Pillow mounds visible over a large area on 1948 aerial photograph.

Royal Air Force, 1953, RAF/58/1110, 0040 (Aerial Photograph). SDV142083.

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

SX 590656. A group of nine pillow mounds counted at Hen Tor. A further one was located at SX 582657.

Haynes, R. G., 1970, Vermin Traps and Rabbit Warrens on Dartmoor, 158 (Article in Serial). SDV166302.

National Monuments Record, 1976, SX5865, 1/434 (Aerial Photograph). SDV152032.

Haynes, R. G., 1978, Typescript notes and plans (Un-published). SDV285917.

Hentor Warren. Probably the last of the warrens to come into use and certainly the first to be abandoned. Most likely to have always been worked with Willings Walls Warren. (SX 56 NE 135).
The western boundary is assumed to be the Hentor Brook; the northern River Plym; the southern from boundstone HWB3 in a straight line to HWB4 (now disappeared) at the head of Shavercombe; thence in a straight line to Mill Corner Blowing House (SX 56 NE 95) and HWB5 (also disappeared). These are boundaries of Hentor and Willings Walls as given in the lease of 1807 (Morley papers). Approximately 450 acres. Probably abandoned as a separate warren in the 1820's. Operated since then by Ditsworthy Warren (SX 56 NE 111). It is not mentioned in the Tithe Map of the 1840's.

Haynes, R. G., 1978-1981, The Boundaries of Hentor Warren in 1807, 97-98 (Article in Serial). SDV137825.

Boundaries of warren in 1807 given.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1979, SX56NE133 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV156472.

(21/01/1979) Hentor Warren (name confirmed) contains at least forty 'buries' or pillow mounds of which about half are close to streams or rivers while the remainder are built on existing banks and walls. They extend between 283.0m OD and 373.0m OD. Their lengths vary from 9.0m to 70.0m with widths of 6.5m and heights of 1.2m. The majority of them are ditched and aligned with the slope.
There are extant remains of the Warrener's, and his labourer's house. (SX 56 NE 128 and 132).
Surveyed at 1:10 000 on PFD.

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

Pillow mounds recorded, see SX56NE/274.

Brewer, D., 1986, A field guide to the boundary markers on and around Dartmoor, 52-4 (Monograph). SDV309252.

Gerrard, S., 1990-2002, Monument Protection Programme. Archaeological Item Dataset., MPP 140350 (Report - Survey). SDV277946.

(02/06/1995) Includes c.50 pillow mounds and 10 vermin traps, covering c.180 hectares. Established by at least 1807. Denoted by River Plym along north-west side and by a series of 5 boundary stones (of which only 3 survive), leading from Spanish Lake Head, via Shavercombe Head to Colesmills. Sometime shortly after 1815 it was taken over and worked from Ditsworthy and continued in use until 1930s.

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

Depicted and described by Robertson.

Thackray, C., 1994, The Upper Plym Valley: the management of an historic landscape, 230, 102.857 (Report - non-specific). SDV143510.

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

(13/05/2002) SX 591657. Hentor Warren. The land occupied by Hentor Farm was reused as a warren from at least the early years of the 19th century by which time the house had been abandoned and the area managed from Ditsworthy, on the opposite bank of the Plym. The warren bounds are described by Brewer (9) and remain marked by four of the five original boundary stones at SX 58436445, SX 58766474, 59566517 and SX 60326523. Each stone is inscribed with the letters H W B and a number, 1-4 respectively. The fifth stone lay near the confluence of Shavercombe Brook and the Plym and is no longer identifiable.
Within the warren are 58 pillow mounds ranging from 12m to 80m long with an average width of 6.5m and a maximum height of 1.2m. The mounds occupy many features of the former farm; field boundaries are re-modelled to form pillow mounds, they overlie areas of ridge and furrow and reuse mounds of tinners waste in the streamworks on the Hentor Brook and the Plym. The common factor is that all the mounds are relatively close to water.
In addition to the mounds are a number of small, connected chevron-shaped ditches around 1.3m wide and 0.3m deep. These are concentrated on the moderate W facing slope at SX 58756602 and they are aligned with their angles on the upslope and the arms pointing downhill. They appear to be attempts to divert surface water away from parts of the slope in order to encourage rabbit burrowing in the relatively dry areas between the arms which are about 25m apart at their lower ends. A large number of similar ditches containing evidence of rabbit burrowing are visible at Trowelsworthy Warren (SX 56 SE 66).
The late establishment of this warren is attested to by the presence of only four vermin traps at SX 58116592, SX 57916578, SX 58496563 and SX 59386580. These exist as a series of V or X-shaped stony banks up to 10m long and 0.4m high which were originally intended to channel predators into a stone-built trap at the apex. All three traps have been incorporated into earlier field walls or banks. No trap stones remain inn situ. These features were made obsolete in the late 18th century with the introduction of gin-traps and the wider use of shotguns.

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

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