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Summary

A series of parallel reaves on Holme Moor, the length of which are determined by ground configuration, varies from 500 m to 1500 m. Each is at an approximate right angle to the terminal reave; the parallel spacing is roughly multiples of 33.0 m i.e., 66.0, 100.0, 130.0 m, with clearly defined banks of stone 2.0 m wide and up to 0.5 m high. The resulting long strips are often subdivided laterally by banks or lynchets into plots 150 m to 200 m long, and sometimes divided longitudinally into strips 17.0 m wide.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1020487: Part of the Dartmeet coaxial field system and other archaeological remains on Holne Moor west and north west of Venford Reservoir

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX67SE92
• National Monuments Record: SX67SE95
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 443125
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 443134
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX67SE/246/2
• Old SAM Ref: 22368

Monument Type(s) and Dates

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

Full description

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV158749.

Belsey, p. M. /(1991)/worksheet in pf.

National Monument Record, 19/05/1977, SX6672/2, 164-165 (Aerial Photograph). SDV173027.

Royal Air Force, 1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1890, 2372-2374 (Aerial Photograph). SDV169268.

Gawne, E. + Somers Cockes, J. V., 1968, Parallel Reaves of Dartmoor, 284 (Article in Serial). SDV345858.

Parallel reaves (centred at SX 659721 on accompanying plan), part of an extensive system (see SX 67 SE 92 & 94) mainly aligned on a south west-north east axis. They "cannot be accepted as fields but rather are land divisions". Their chronology is not confirmed, but their distribution on Dartmoor accords with Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age huts (one hut within the area; SX 67 SE 54), in places are certainly overlaid by Medieval fields and must be pre-10th century.

Ordnance Survey, 1975, OS/75/298, 089-90 (Aerial Photograph). SDV346964.

Short lengths visible mainly in the southern part of the area.

National Monuments Record, 1977, SX6672/1, 158-161 (Aerial Photograph). SDV244382.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1977, SX67SE95 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV346970.

(07/12/1977) More than three square kms of parallel reaves centred at SX 678714 extend between the terminal reave (SX 67 SE 96) along the crest of Down Ridge and Holne Moor and the Rivers Dart and West Dart. A further system on the same north east to south west alignment occurs to the north of the Dart.
The length of the parallel reaves, determined by ground configuration, varies from 500 m to 1500 m. Each is at an approximate right angle to the terminal reave; the parallel spacing is roughly multiples of 33.0 m i.e., 66.0, 100.0, 130.0 m, with clearly defined banks of stone 2.0 m wide and up to 0.5 m high. The resulting long strips are often subdivided laterally by banks or lynchets into plots 150 m to 200 m long, and sometimes divided longitudinally into strips 17.0 m wide.
Hut circles are widely scattered throughout the system, usually only one to a plot or group of fields. The precise relationship and dating of huts and fields, presumably of Bronze Age origin, awaits the report following the current intensive survey, with excavations, being undertaken by Dr Fleming of Sheffield University.

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

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1980, SX67SE92 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV158742.

(07/02/1980) For description and survey of 'Venford' (terminal) reave see SX 67 SE 96.

Fleming, A., 1984, The Prehistoric Landscape of Dartmoor; Wider Implications, 7 (Article in Serial). SDV320417.

Part of the Dartmeet parallel reave system.

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

Parallel reaves extending from the Venford reave north-eastwards, SX67SE/169, at SX 66807134 to SX 67277208. Runs parallel to and probably joins the reave systems (subsheets 1 + 3). Visible on RAF 1946 and NMR 1977 aerial photographs.

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

The parallel reave system has been extensively surveyed, and two hut circles within it, (SX 67 SE 105 and 155) have been excavated. These are demonstrably Bronze Age and contemporary with the reaves. The parallel reaves meet the Venford Reave almost at right angles. It is believed that the reave system was laid out by a large group consisting of smaller 'neighbourhood groups', of which the Holne Moor group is an example, and that the distribution of huts within the parallel reaves reflects common holdings by that group rather than individual or family holdings. The reave system was laid out ca 1700-1600 BC, and in other areas of Dartmoor it incorporates pre-existing fields. There is evidence at Holne Moor that this is also the case. The Venford reave has a distinct kink in it at SX 67117119, where it forms the terminal southern boundary of a very small field, only 0.14 ha in extent. The southern edge of this field is a negative lynchet. The terminal reave has been built along the upper edge of a cultivated field where soil creep has created a slight step in the surface contours. It seems clear that the little field was laid out by people who knew the general line of the southern edge of the Holne Moor reave system and its axis; later, when the Venford Reave was constructed, the builders rejected the position of an existing parcel of land, resulting in the kink we see today.

Griffith, F. M., 1990, DAP/QF, 1-8 (Aerial Photograph). SDV140063.

Butler, J., 1993, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Four - The South-East (Monograph). SDV337765.

Probert, S. A. J. + Newman, P., 1997, Holne Moor, Dartmoor, Devonshire. A Landscape Survey by the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (Report - Survey). SDV173671.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV7100 - Holne Moor Survey
• EDV8143 - Fleming's excavations on Holne Moor
• EDV8146 - Royal Commission Survey at Down Ridge and Swincombe
• EDV8632 - Sherberton Farm, Duchy Farms Survey
• EDV8409 - Dartmoor Royal Forest Project

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