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Summary

Penn Moor Bronze Age Reave East running east to west between the River Yealm past Broadall Lake to a Prehistoric Enclosed Hut Circle Settlement at SX60306289. The remains of a reave emerges from Leftlake Mires and is aligned on the largest of the "Three Barrows" at SX 65296261. The reave has been dug into in recent times exposing much natural sub-surface stone, but otherwise is visible as a heather-covered bank of stone 4.0m. wide and 0.3m. high, clearly much overgrown by peat. Between the large cairn and a smaller one at SX 65346251 the reave cannot be identified on the ground but marks on air photographs suggest that this 40.0m. gap was formerly closed. The reave extends southwards as a bank of stones 5.0m. across and up to 0.8m. high, descending with a slight deviation to SX 65756170, 25 metres from the West Glaze Brook where it disappears.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1002524: Hut circles and fields on Dendles Waste
• Scheduled Monument 1012805: Part of Penn Moor contour reave incorporating two stone hut circles and an enclosed hut settlement
• Scheduled Monument 1002524: Hut circles and fields on Dendles Waste
• Scheduled Monument 1012805: Part of Penn Moor contour reave incorporating two stone hut circles and an enclosed hut settlement

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX66SE109
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 442084
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX66SW/142
• Old SAM Ref: 10782

Monument Type(s) and Dates

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

Full description

Fleming, A. + Collis, J. + Jones, R. L., 1973, A Late Prehistoric Reave System near Cholwich Town, Dartmoor, Figs 1, 5, Plate III (Article in Serial). SDV358808.

11) Penn Moor Reave, East. Length: 200m, Start of wall: SX 60306289, End of wall: SX 60536293
East of the enclosure the ground drops sharply towards Ford Brook. The reave runs straight down this slope, but has been greatly disturbed. Between 495 m. and 505 m. it has been quarried away, and the spoil dumped to the south. On this steep slope none of the breaks is likely to be original. Two hut circles on the slope give the impression of having been attached to the south side of the reave, but this is not certain. No entrances are visible on the surface. The reave runs up to the edge of the sharp modern erosion channel of the Ford Brook, but there is no trace of it further east. However, it does line up remarkably well with a modern wall which runs further east to join prehistoric enclosures above the Broadall Lake, and one wonders whether this wall could be on the line of a destroyed reave.

National Monuments Record, 1977, NMR SX6163, 1,2 (Aerial Photograph). SDV166611.

Photograph taken on 14th April 1977.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1977, SX66SE109 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV142102.

(04/08/1977) Leftlake stream and West Glaze Brook would seem originally to have been recognised boundaries and linked by the construction of a reave across the intervening hill which now, for much of its course, carries the parish boundary.
The reave emerges from the deep peat of Leftlake Mires at SX 65086314 and is aligned on the largest of the "Three Barrows" at SX 65296261. Two hundred metres north of the cairn the reave has been dug into in recent times exposing much natural sub-surface stone, but otherwise is visible as a heather-covered bank of stone 4.0m. wide and 0.3m. high, clearly much overgrown by peat. Between the large cairn and a smaller one at SX 65346251 the reave cannot be identified on the ground but marks on the air photographs suggest that this 40.0m. gap was formerly closed by the wall being offset slightly to the north east of the general alignment. From the tangent of the smaller cairn the reave extends southwards as a bank of stones 5.0m. across and up to 0.8m. high, descending with a slight deviation to SX 65756170 25m. from the West Glaze Brook where it disappears in boggy ground.
Surveyed at 1:10 000 on PFD.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1977, SX66SW68 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV151746.

(23/08/1977) Penn Moor reave, a Bronze Age boundary work which extends along the south side of Penn Moor from the Rook Reave to the valley of the River Erme, thus separating the moor from the Erme and Yealm territory. Parts have been investigated and surveyed.

Fleming, A., 1978, The Prehistoric Landscape of Dartmoor. Part 1: South Dartmoor, 97-123 (Article in Serial). SDV235265.

Site visited in April 1972. Penn Moor reave east runs from SX60306289 to SX60536293 a length of 200 metres. The reave runs eastwards from the Penn Moor settlement up to the modern erosion channel of the Ford Brook, it cannot be traced beyond this but it is possible that a modern wall marks the original line which would have taken the reave to the Prehistoric enclosures above Broadall Lake. The detailed description of the course of the reave is given but it has been much disturbed.

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

Visible and recorded.

Fleming, A., 1988, The Dartmoor Reaves: Investigating Prehistoric Land Divisions, 9, 44, Figure 5 (Monograph). SDV229071.

Penn Moor Reave running west to east following the contour from the Rook Reave to the River Yealm. Later Bronze Age reave built in a fairly open landscape and representing a kind of land division which was different from the parallel reave systems.

Fletcher, M. + Newman, P. + Probert, S., 1998, Hawns and Dendles: An Archaeological Survey by the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, 9, Figure 3, Appendix 2 (Report - Survey). SDV346246.

The present outer Newtake wall fossilises part of the course of the Penn Moor Reave. A middle Bronze Age boundary or terminal reave.

Ordnance Survey, 2017, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV359962.

Prehistoric boundary following the Newtake wall shown on modern mapping.

Historic England, 2017, National Heritage List for England, 1012805 (National Heritage List for England). SDV359963.

Part of Penn Moor contour reave incorporating two stone hut circles and an enclosed hut settlement is Scheduled.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV4965 - Hawns and Dendles, Cornwood: An Archaeological survey by the Royal Commission

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