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Summary

Eastern of a pair of hut circles shown on historic maps. This feature has been damaged during the construction of a reave or an old boundary bank and a survey in 2002 suggested it is not a prehistoric feature, but remains of something more modern.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1019083: Medieval farmstead and field system, length of Willings Walls Reave, four round cairns, a ring cairn and pillow mounds at Willings Walls Warren

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX56SE1
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 439106
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX56SE/12/1
• Old SAM County Ref: 494
• Old SAM Ref: 24231

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• HUT CIRCLE (Constructed, Bronze Age - 2200 BC to 701 BC (Between))
• (Alternate Type) STRUCTURE (Constructed, Early Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD? to 1750 AD (Between))

Full description

Ordnance Survey, 1880-1899, First Edition Ordnance 25 inch map (Cartographic). SDV336179.

Eastern of two 'Hut Circles' shown on 19th century map.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1950, SX56SE1, Hut B (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV139120.

01/06/1950 One of two hut circles. Walling of small stones and turf, heavily overgrown with heather and bracken. The circle has been damaged during the construction of a reave or an old boundary bank.

Ordnance Survey, 1975, OS/75/369, 145-6 (Aerial Photograph). SDV254607.

Not visible on air photographs.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1977, SX56SE1, SX56SE1 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV363465.

SX 5820 6494. The open settlement consists of 2 type 1 hut circles and a yard, and lies by an opening in the reave (SX 56 NE 123), on a gentle, well drained slope at 335m above OD.
The smaller hut circle, 4m x 3m internally with a wall about 1.5m wide has a north facing entrance and is built against the east face of the reave on the south of the opening. The sub-rectangular yard, about 5m by 3m internally, with a wall about 1m. thick and in very poor condition, is built on to the west face of the reave.
This settlement is contemporary with the reave and was possibly built to control the opening. The gap, 19m wide seems original, since there is no visual evidence of robbed walling and there is a distinct realignment to the north to accommodate the entrance gap. (Type site SX 56 SE 19). 1:10 000 Survey on PFD/AO Model.
Enlargement Survey at 1:1000 scale for AO Records.

National Monument Record, 1977, SX5864, 2 (Aerial Photograph). SDV139162.

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

Visible on the 1977 aerial photograph and recorded on map overlay.

Gerrard, S., 1990-2002, Monument Protection Programme. Archaeological Item Dataset., MPP 140753, (Report - Survey). SDV277946.

(Visited 15/4/1997) The eastern of two hut circles (SX 5821 5493). Survives as a bank of earth and stone, attached to the east side of the Willings Walls reave just south of a possible original entrance. Simple plan and rubble bank walling type. Interior measures 4.0 metres by 3.4 metres and is surrounded by a 1.6 metre wide wall standing up to 0.6 metres high.

Butler, J., 1994, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Three - The South-West, 162-4, Map 51, Figure 51.6 (Monograph). SDV137656.

'Hut group 'D'' indicated to the north west of Settlement 'C' at 'Upper Spanish Lake hut groups and cairns'. Described under 'willings Walls South huts, enclosure and cairns' as a group of three buildings including a pair of roughly rectangular foundations built against each other of 3.5 metres by 6.0 metres and 3.0 metres by 4.0 metres as well as a large well preserved hut circle to the west of 7.0 metres.

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

Two hut circles and a structure depicted and described by Robertson.

Thackray, C., 1994, The Upper Plym Valley: the management of an historic landscape, 123,182/102.479,566 and 567 (Report - non-specific). SDV143510.

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

(05/04/2002) Centred SX 58216494. A well-preserved hut circle and two sub-rectangular structures lie adjacent to the Willings Walls Reave 250m north-east of Spanish Lake.
SX 5821 6494. A wedge shaped structure measuring 4.6m south to south by 3.6m wide at the south tapering to around 2m wide at the northern end which is open. One side is formed by the reave while the other is part of a medieval or later boundary work that traverses this part of Lee Moor.
The origin and function of this feature (and the square structure to the south) are unclear but most unlikely to be prehistoric and connected to settlement.

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

(11/03/2020) Conditioned assessed as good; although vegetation encroachment is affecting this feature.

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

Image taken of feature during March 2020 visit.

Ordnance Survey, 2021, MasterMap 2021 (Cartographic). SDV364015.

Eastern of two 'Hut Circles' shown on modern mapping

Historic England, 2021, National Heritage List for England, 1019083 (National Heritage List for England). SDV364016.

The two stone hut circles lying adjacent to an entrance in the reave survive as banks of earth and stone surrounding an internal area. The larger hut lies west of the reave, its interior measures 6.5 metres in diameter and is defined by a 1.4 metres wide coursed and rubble bank standing up to 0.7 metres high. A gap in the wall faces south and may represent an original doorway. The second hut is attached to the eastern side of the reave and this survives as a 1.6 metres wide and 0.6 metres high rubble bank surrounding an oval interior measuring 4 metres long by 3.4 metres wide.

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: EH Project (Feb 2001 - Dec 2002)

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