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Summary

Enclosure to the south-west of Hen Tor of 73 metres by 60 metres between an area of clitter and the former enclosed land around Hentor Farm. Banks are generally 1.5 metres wide and exist up to 0.7 metres high. This partial enclosure has six associated huts; three attached to the walls and three internally

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1019082: Multi-period remains at Hentor Warren

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX56NE78
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 438723
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX56NE/159
• Old SAM Ref Revised: 24230(P)
• Old SAM Ref: 10694

Monument Type(s) and Dates

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

Full description

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

'Hut Circles' shown on 19th century map.

Royal Air Force, 1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1190, 4285 (Aerial Photograph). SDV163731.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1950, SX56NE78, Enclosure, remains of (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV163730.

(02/06/1950) The incomplete remains of an enclosure of the usual Dartmoor type (see sketch). The walls consist of large stones and turf reaching an average height of 0.5 metres. No obvious entrance.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1979, SX56NE78 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV363230.

(10/04/1979) Below Hentor on a north-west facing clitter-covered slope, between 347.0m and 370.0m OD, are the remains of a partly enclosed settlement of twenty-six huts occupying an area of 4.5 hectares. There are two main enclosures, each incomplete, constructed of piled stones to form walling 1.5m thick and 0.5m high. No distinctive entrances are visible. The majority of the huts are connected by a rickle of stones.
Six lie within the first enclosure and two in the second. The huts appear to be of Type 2 with southern entrances and levelled interiors. The internal diameters vary from 2.0m to 5.0m with a mean of 3.3m. The hut walling averages 1.0m thick and 0.6m high. The site is generally in poor condition. (Type site: SX 56 NE 71). Surveyed at 1:10 000 on PFD.

National Monuments Record, 1983, NMR SF2134, 533 (Aerial Photograph). SDV238551.

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

Oval enclosure containing four freestanding hut circles, two hut circles attached to interior wall of enclosure visible on the aerial photographs. Attached to Hentor Warren small field system (SX56NE/397) by field boundary on north-west of enclosure. Area approximately 0.40 hectares.

Gerrard, S., 1990-2002, Monument Protection Programme. Archaeological Item Dataset., MPP 140420, 18/05/1995 (Report - Survey). SDV277946.

(SX 5900 6534) Sub rectangular enclosure, 73m by 60m. Defined on three sides by a 1m wide and 0.5m high rubble bank with occasional orthostats. The south side is defined by a broad spread of dense clitter. The enclosure surrounds 4 hut circles and 3 further huts are butted by the enclosure wall. It would therefore seem very likely that the enclosure was added at a later date to the settlement.

Ancient Monuments, 1991, Details from Schedule (Schedule Document). SDV163728.

Sub-rectangular enclosure with a bank of boulders up to 1m wide and 0.5m high. Enclosure measures 73m long by 60m wide and has 3 hut circles abutting the bank and a further three freestanding within it. The huts range from 6.5m to 11m in diameter with double faced walls from 0.5m to 1m high and 1m to 2.5m thick. There are entrances to the huts in the south, east and west sides. Enclosure strewn with clitter.

Butler, J., 1994, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Three - The South-West, 122-3; Map 49, figure 49.8 (Monograph). SDV137656.

Enclosure 'C' on the north side of area of 'surface stone' at 'Upper Hentor Brook' has substantial remains. The original entrance seems to have been on the north-west side where the circuit wall is discontinuous between a pair of huts. There are three medium sized hut circles of 5.2 to 6.7 metres diameter and three smaller huts of 3.8 to 4.2 metres diameter. Three huts are attached to the boundary wall and three are interior huts.

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

Depicted by Robertson.

Thackray, C., 1994, The Upper Plym Valley: the management of an historic landscape, 148/ 102.518a (Report - non-specific). SDV143510.

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

(22/03/2002) Centred SX 59106543. A cluster of irregular and incompletely preserved enclosures containing 20 hut circles lie between the clitter west of Hen Tor and the former enclosed land around Hentor Farm. It is impossible to determine the original extent of this settlement as it has been severely disturbed by later activity which seems to have resulted in the removal of several elements and the obfuscation of most others. The enclosure banks are generally 1.5m wide and exist up to 0.7m high though some have been heightened by the addition of clearance stone in the post medieval period and others have been robbed to ground level.
Of the 26 huts recorded in 1979, only 20 can be positively identified, the remainder existing as small hollows in the clitter. All have been partially or wholly infilled by clearance material and few original features are apparent.

English Heritage, 2005-2008, Prehistoric Survey Information (Cartographic). SDV345521.

Enclosure shown on survey.

Bluesky International Ltd/Getmapping PLC, 2015-2017, 2015-2017 Aerial Photographs (Aerial Photograph). SDV361462.

Aerial photography shows majority of the enclosure wall surveyed in 2002.

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

Enclosure shown on modern mapping

Historic England, 2021, National Heritage List for England, 1019082 (National Heritage List for England). SDV364016.

This monument includes extensive prehistoric and historic archaeological monuments situated within Hentor Warren, which lies between the Shavercombe and Hentor Brooks. The prehistoric archaeology includes three partially enclosed stone hut circle settlements, ten round cairns, one ring cairn, four cists, part of the Willings Walls Reave and a cairnfield.

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

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