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Summary

A mound located in a field between the village of Brent Tor and the old church was recorded in the 1930s by Worth and Cowling. When it was destroyed a stone coffin was found which was moved to Woodford, Brentor (MDV120343). Unclear whether it remains at this property. No accurate location for this site.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX48SE3
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 438133
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX48SE/21

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• BARROW? (Early Bronze Age to Roman - 2200 BC? to 409 AD? (Between))
• COFFIN (Early Bronze Age to Roman - 2200 BC? to 409 AD? (Between))

Full description

Cowling, J. + Worth, R. N., 1936, Archaeological Notes from the Valley of the Lyd, 304-5 (Article in Serial). SDV263052.

Between the village of Brent Tor and the old church is a field in which a mound once stood. The owner destroyed the mound and in doing so found a stone coffin of granite. He used it as a pig trough, and later as a butter chest. It was bought by Mr. Cowling for his museum at Brentor.
Internal length of the coffin is 4 feet 2 inches (1.27 metres); width varies from 15.5 inches to 20.5 inches (0.39 - 0.52 metres), depth from 13 - 15 inches (0.33 - 0.38 metres). Sides and bottom average 4 - 4.5 inches (10.1 - 11.4 centimetres) thick. Nothing appears to have been found within it but from its position in a large mound or barrow it was probably a stone coffin similar to that of Robertus de Moles, the lid of which is in Okehampton church yard and is 4 feet (1.21 metres) long and 16 inches (0.40 metres) at its widest.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1950, SX48SE3 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV263053.

(06/10/1950) Oral information given to the Ordnance Survey from the owner of 'Woodford', Brentor states that the coffin is now cemented into the wall in what was once the museum room of her father-in-law; Mr J. Cowling (Transactions, 68, 1936). There are no remaining notes of Mr. Cowling to say where it was found; these would have been taken away by the gentleman from some London museum who called some time after his death.
Coffin of moorland granite built into the south-west wall of the house 'Woodford'. Made from moorland granite, it measures 1.3 metres long by 0.4 - 0.5 metres wide internally. Outer dimensions are 1.5 metres long by 0.6 - 0.7 metres wide and 0.37 metres deep. No further information was available regarding the site at which it was found (06/10/1950).

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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