See important guidance on the use of this record.

If you have any comments or new information about this record, please email us.

Summary

A field named at Barry or Berry Park in a survey of 1777 and on the mid 19th century Tithe Apportionment was suggested to contain the remains of a stone structure. However, a site visit in 1987 found no evidence and it is suggested that the antiquarian writers had confused the site with the Giants Grave earthwork which lies 2km to the south-east

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX73NW/37/1
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX73NW/51

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• EARTHWORK (XVIII to XIX - 1701 AD (Between) to 1900 AD (Between))

Full description

Laithwaite, M., Berry Park (Personal Comment). SDV140720.

The fieldname 'Berry Park' is recorded in a survey of 1777. The field was part of Lower Soar at that time.

Dean Milles, 1755, Dean Milles Parochial Returns of 1755 (Record Office Collection). SDV341339.

Reply from Mark Bawden, Curate of Malborough c1755 to a questionnaire from the antiquary Dean Milles.

Unknown, 1777, Powderham Records. South Hams Survey Book 1777. Lower Soar Farm (Record Office Collection). SDV140726.

Hawkins, A., 1819, Kingsbridge and Salcombe (Monograph). SDV144702.

In a field called Bury (quasi barrow) Park containing 8 or 9 acres, is a structure with the appearance of great antiquity. It is a quadrangular rampart or barrow with a conical tumulus at each corner, except that the south side of the square and the barrow at the south-west corner have been defaced by a stone wall that now occupies the site of it. The quadrangle has immemorially been called 'the church' and, traditionally, the work of the Danes.
About half a mile west of Starehole Valley was part of the walls of a very large building with two small rooms, like offices, at the end. This place, supposed to be a place of worship, was used by the owners (of the common, enclosed circa 1720) for a sheelfold, capable of holding 700 sheep.
There is another place midway between this and where the town stood called by the old people, the church, I suppose on account of the ruins of the walls being vastly larger than those of the other houses.

South West Heritage Trust, 1838-1848, Digitised Tithe Maps and Transcribed Apportionments (Cartographic). SDV359954.

Field 2237 is named as Barry Park on the Malborough Tithe Apportionment.

Davidson, J. B., 1861, Notes on the Antiquities of Devonshire which date before the Norman Conquest, 57-8 (Monograph). SDV123842.

At Berry Park on Boltbury Down is a quadrangular enclosure about 120ft square, with a circular tumulus at each corner. Nearby is a similar work. The earthworks command extensive views of the sea and coast and are traditionally said to be the remains of a Danish settlement.

Donn, B., 1965, A Map of the County of Devon, 1765 (Reprint) (Monograph). SDV336413.

Donn's map refers to Boltberry.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1987, Barry Park (Site Visit). SDV364933.

A field of about 3 hectares, at SX70493803, is named in the tithe award as Barry Park. Three fields immediately to the north and west, on steep coastal slopes have names incorporating the element, Blackmoor.
Site visit 3rd February 1987. The distances and cardinal points given by early writers are grossly inaccurate. Both Davidson and Bawden's mention of a place called the church are apparently references to the Giant's Grave earthwork, 2km to the south-east.
Barry Park lies on a high flat plateau which has been intensively cultivated for decades. The southern boundary is constructed of a crudely coursed wall up to 1.1m high but the eastern field hedge has been effaced. There is no surface evidence of an enclosure and the site, which is regularly ploughed, was under wheat at the time of investigation.

Silverster, R., Unknown, Malborough (Worksheet). SDV167047.

'Bury' field name recorded on the Tithe Map above Lower Soar Farm. Shapes visible in the field (citing Hawkins).

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV6587 - Archaeological Assessment of Land between Bolt Heat and Bolt Tail

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.