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Summary

Field system located within a coniferous plantation on a moderate north-west-facing slope 600m north west of Laughter Hole Farm with one associated hut. The field pattern is roughly rectangular but much detail has been lost due to forestry activities in this area. It seems likely that the fields were once contiguous with those to the north-east, south and south-east.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX67NE215
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 890950
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX67NE/250

Monument Type(s) and Dates

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

Full description

Royal Air Force, 1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1890, 2462-3 (Aerial Photograph). SDV169268.

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

Series of banks which possibly form an extended agglomerated enclosure or series of agglomerated enclosures rather than field systems. In the south there is a possible individual enclosure. These features are faintly visible as apparent vegetation marks on the 1946 RAF aerial photo in an area planted for trees which is marked as woodland on the 1954 1:10560 OS map.

Royal Commission for the Historical Monuments of England, 1987-1993, Duchy Farms Project Survey Visit, S. Probert (Report - Survey). SDV350839.

(21/10/1993) Centred SX 65307624. A hut circle and enclosure located within a coniferous plantation on a moderate north-west-facing slope 600m north west of Laughter Hole Farm. The hut lies as SX 65287623 in the middle of an access track and has been surrounded by Forestry Commission antiquity markers. It has been severely damaged and consists of a boggy, levelled platform 2.3m in diameter surrounded by a rough circle of disturbed stones. There is no trace of an entrance. Two other huts, approximately 25m to the north west and 100m to the north, are recorded by the RCHME APU transcription; (1985) there is, however, no trace of these on the ground. The extant hut adjoins a stoney bank 2.0m wide and 0.6m high that forms part of a fragmentary rectilinear field system covering an area of approximately 1.25ha. It is likely that this system was once contiguous with others to the south and south west (SX 67 NE 25 and 223).
The field pattern is roughly rectangular but much detail has been lost due to forestry activities in this area. It seems likely that the fields were once contiguous with those to the north-east, south and south-east.

Gerrard, S., 1993-2010, Monument Protection Programme Alternative Action Report (Report - non-specific). SDV145710.

(-/-/2002) Severely damaged by forestry activities. Considered under MPP but not recommended for scheduling.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV7388 - Archaeological condition survey in Bellever Woods
• EDV7406 - Archaeological condition survey in Bellever Woods
• EDV7431 - Woodland Survey (1989-90) at Bellever, Soussons and other woodland parcels
• EDV8409 - Dartmoor Royal Forest Project
• EDV8423 - Duchy Farms Project

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