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Summary

The unfinished hillfort (MDV8261) appears to have been constructed upon a pre-existing field system covering around 12.0 hectares, although it must have been extended much further and the modern field banks forming the east and southwest boundaries of Natterdon Common are probably based upon pre-historic alignments.

Location

Protected Status

• SHINE: Nattadon Hillford, Chagford. Iron Age hillfort probably overlying the remains of a field system

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX78NW41
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 445576
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX78NW/84

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• FIELD SYSTEM (Constructed, Iron Age - 700 BC (Between) to 42 AD (Between))

Full description

National Monuments Record, 1979, SF1508, 871-873 (Aerial Photograph). SDV346563.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1982, SX78NW41 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV268239.

(30/03/1982) SX 70508664. Natterdon Common is a knoll of Dartmoor granite moorland situated at 318m. O.D. and forming the northern end of a ridge, but separated from it by a saddle to the S. The knoll shelves gently to the east but presents steep slopes to the north and west, which overlook the Teign valley and the source of the River Bovey respectively. The position is naturally defensive, the only higher ground in the locality being the granite outcrop on Meldon Hill (387m. O.D), 1km. to the southwest.
The Common has about 20m. of flattish summit beyond which there is moderate shelving for a further 80m; apart from a few outcropping rocks the ground is unencumbered. Occupying this area, before the hillside steepens, a double enclosure has been attempted by means of scarping.
Both enclosures are incomplete. The outer, approximately 120m. by 140m. (1.28ha.), is demarcated by a scarp averaging 2.5m. in length and from 0.3m. to 1.4m. in height; the inner, approximately 75m. in diameter (0.4 ha), has a scarp not exceeding 2.0m. in length and 0.6m. in height. The earthworks are not concentric, the interspace varying from 28m. in width on the south to 40m. on the northeast side. Traces of a terrace exist at the foot of the outer scarp on the south and west but nowhere is there any perceptible ditch. Unusually, there are no indications of an entrance, which might have been expected on the east side where the approach is easiest, and its ist in this area that the scarping is weakest. The northeast side of the outer enclosure cannot be traced with any degree of certainty and it may have been destroyed by a line of costeaning pits. There, possibly medieval and presumably following a tin lode, extend down the southwestern hillside for a total of 400m.
On the ground the initial impression is that of agricultural lynchetting but this is dispelled by reference to the air photo (a), and the lack of any disturbance to the natural slope or platform effect that would be created by ploughing. The earthworks appear to represent the setting out stage of a small bivallate hill-top fortification.
Though Natterdon is by far the most embryonic, parallels can be made with Cranbrook Castle (5kms. to the northeast), and Hunter's Tor (7kms. to the southeast), both not only unfinished but constructed upon a pre-existing field system. This seems to be true of Natterdon but the evidence provided by the air photograph is, for the most part, difficult to translate into surveyable features on the ground and a reconstruction plan (q.v.) must incorporate some tenuous elements.
The primary divisions consist of lynchets and banks spaced at intervals of about 40m. contour following on the lower southwest part of the hill but traversing them on the east side where the gradient is much less and it is here that the setting-out scarps appear to have cut across one north to south bank. The parallel reaves are difficult to find in the bracken and heather and are mostly less than 0.2m. high. Those on the southwest are identifiable by cattle walks which follow the line of the presumed lynchets. Possible sub-divisions are denoted by two or three fragmentary lynchets though their irregularity does not conform to a specific pattern.
The present extent of the field system covers, perhaps, 12.0ha., but it must have been extended much further and the modern field banks forming the east and southwest boundaries of Natterdon Common are probably based upon pre-historic alignments. There is a well-defined parallel reave system on the east face of Meldon Hill (SX 697861) and traces of another on Week Down, 700m. to the east of Natterdon Common (SX 78 NW 23).
Unfinished hillfort and visible field system surveyed at 1:2500 on M.S.D. (see copy with additions and annotations).
Surveyed at 1:1000 for record purposes, with profiles.

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

Remains of field system visible on Nattadon Common.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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