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Summary

North and east sides of a hut circle settlement to the east of Leeden Tor, spread over an eroded area covered with surface clitter, which thins towards the east and south. There are three contiguous curvilinear enclosures (MDV50185) forming the focus of the settlement, each about 30.0 metres across, with an enclosing boundary wall/bank forming an arc around the eastern side of the settlement. This is either unfinished or eroded to an extent that it is no longer traceable. The walling of the contiguous enclosures is of piled large stones and averages 1.5 metres wide and 0.5 metres high. A total of twenty huts are identifiable associated with the enclosures, some attached to the enclosure boundary walls. There is no clearly defined field system associated with the settlement.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1011168: Enclosed stone hut circle settlement 200m east of Leeden Tor

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX 57 SE 42
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX57SE/17
• Old SAM Ref: 22285 + 22321 + 22322 + 22323
• Pastscape: 440146

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• ENCLOSED HUT CIRCLE SETTLEMENT (Constructed, Bronze Age - 2200 BC to 701 BC (Between))

Full description

Royal Air Force, 1949, RAF/540/226, 5273-4 (Aerial Photograph). SDV231367.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1950, SX57SE42 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV272875.

Visited 28/8/1950 (SX564 715) A group of four hut circles on Leedon Tor, ranging from 6.5 metres - 9.5 metres in diameter, with mainly southern entrances (MDV3742-MDV3745).

Quinnell, N. V., 1980, SX57SE42, Visited 17/07/1980 (Report - Survey). SDV231363.

Centred at SX 56457164 on the south-east slope of Leeden Tor, at about 370 metres OD., is a settlement, spread over 1.8 hectares. More than half of the area is covered with erosion runnels and surface clitter, (see general/view ground photograph) which thins towards the east and south.
The nucleus of the settlement now consists of three contiguous curvilinear enclosures (MDV50185), each about 30.0 metres across. The walling is of piled large stones and averaged 1.5 metres wide and 0.5 metres high. Exceptionally it ceases at heavy clitter but usually is carried through it and even across the natural gullies of stones. Each enclosure has one or two gaps with neither orthostats nor retaining slabs at the wall ends, and these may be original entrances. There would seem to have been some clearance but the interiors are strewn with large stones.
A total of twenty huts are identifiable of which ten are of Type 1 (SX 56 SE 19), eight of Type 2 (SX 56 NE 71), and two indeterminate. Most are free standing, but the northern enclosure incorporates four huts in its walling (A to D on plan).
'A' of Type 2 has an internal diameter of 6.2 metres with double faced walling 2.1 metres wide and 0.5 metres high, and a rubble subdivision. No entrance can be seen.
'B' of Type 2, is in deep clitter, with an internal diameter of 4.7 metre walling, 1.2 metres wide and 0.4 metres high and a south-east entrance to a rubble walled yard.
'C' is probably of Type 1 but is very ruined, appearing as a scoop 2.9 metres in diameter with single stones around the perimeter.
'D' may also be of Type 1, with an internal diameter of 3.8 metres and walling 1.6 metres wide and 0.5 metres high. The inner face is partly of coursed stones, the outer of piled rubble.
The detached hut 'E' is also of Type 1 but was obviously disused and piled with clearance.
To the north and east the settlement is bounded by a rubble wall incorporating a few upright posts and slabs and averaging 2.5 metres wide and 0.6 metres high. It traverses ground which is relatively stone free, as is the interspace of 30.0 metres, to 50.0 metres, though the north-western end rests on clitter. The southern termination is a hut, one of four that are either within or near the wall, all of Type 1. There may have been a continuation to the south west and to the reave (SX 57 SE 132) 70.0 metres distant but there seems to have been some clearance in the area, epitomised by one large hut which is now merely an earthen scoop. Towards the north corner of the boundary wall, at SX 56507171, there is a possibly original entrance gap (see ground photograph).
Other Type 1 and Type 2 huts are within naturally clear areas in the south-west and beyond the reave, all similar in nature to those described. Exceptional are two Type 1 huts in clitter of SX 56377170 ('F' on plan) (MDV50187 and MDV50188). Both are of D-plan, 2.8 metres and 3.3 metres internal diameter, and with walling 1.0 metre wide and 0.3 metres high. The upper sides back onto massive rocks. No entrances can be seen; (see ground photograph of southern hut).
There is no clearly defined field system associated with the settlement; clear patches or plots within the clitter are not necessarily artificially produced and certainly have no regular boundaries of clearance stone.
Settlement surveyed at 1:10 000 on MSD and at 1:2500.

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

The enclosure remains are not visible on Royal Air Force 1949 aerial photographs, but the four huts originally recorded by the Ordnance Survey in 1950 are visible.

Butler, J., 1994, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Three - The South-West, 38, Map 45, Figure 45.2 (Monograph). SDV137656.

The multiple enclosures with at least 15 associated hut circles within a stone field east of the tor. Walls wind through clitter, incorporating it where convenient to form small paddocks linking many of the huts (sizes 2.5 metres to 5.8 metres), some of them large enough to have been used as dwellings. The two most important buildings (7.8 metres and 6.6 metres) lie close to the opposite side of the reave and originally seem to have been attached to it.

Various, 2018-2020, PALs Condition Recording forms (Worksheet). SDV362781.

Visited 21/04/2019. A very difficult area to locate features due to poor quality and extremely heavy gorse inundation. Photo taken

Various, 2018-2020, PALs Condition Recording photographs (Photograph). SDV363073.

Visited 21/04/2019 Photo showing enclosure bank

Ordnance Survey, 2019, MasterMap 2019 (Cartographic). SDV362729.

The remains of this settlement and many of the hut circles are depicted on the modern mapping and appear to match the remains that can be identified from the recent (2010/2015) aerial photographs, so are assumed to be fairly accurate.

National Monuments Record, 2019, Pastscape, 2007 data (Website). SDV362732.

A well preserved mostly enclosed settlement set in a clitter field on an exposed hillslope. The area which is under moorland pasture is free from gorse and bracken vegetation Surveyed at 1:2500 (citing Fletcher, M. J., 29/06/2007, English Heritage Field Investigation).

Historic England, 2021, National Heritage List for England, 1011168 (National Heritage List for England). SDV364016.

This monument includes four enclosures, 16 stone hut circles and a number of rubble walls arranged within an enclosing boundary and forming an enclosed stone hut circle settlement, situated on a gentle east-facing slope of Leeden Tor overlooking the valley of the River Meavy. The main enclosure survives as a rubble bank measuring 3 metres wide and standing up to 1.1 metres high, surrounding an area with maximum dimensions of 150 metres north to south by 100 metres east to west. This enclosure wall was either never finished, or survives as a buried feature along its western circuit. Within the large enclosure, three smaller contiguous curvilinear enclosures and a number of short lengths of rubble walling have been identified.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8351 - Walkhampton Premier Archaeological Landscape; Field Investigation Project

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