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Summary

Childe's tomb cairn and cist containing the base of a cross shown on historic mapping

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX67SW31
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX67SW/55/1
• Pastscape: 443322

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• CAIRN (Constructed, Early Neolithic to Late Bronze Age - 4000 BC to 701 BC)
• CIST (Constructed, Early Neolithic to Late Bronze Age - 4000 BC to 701 BC (Between))

Full description

Carrington, N. T., 1826, Dartmoor, a descriptive poem, vignette (Unknown). SDV268135.

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

'Childe's Tomb (Kistvaen)' shown on 19th century map.

Breton, H. H., 1912, Beautiful Dartmoor III. Southern Quarter, 19-20 (Monograph). SDV250997.

Crossing, W., 1912 (1965), Crossing's Guide to Dartmoor, 108-9 (Monograph). SDV320981.

Masson Phillips, E. N., 1937, The Ancient Stone Crosses of Devon: Part I, 309-10 (Article in Serial). SDV240502.

(Site visited sometime in 1936) Kistvaen surrounded by the remains of a retaining circle and surmounted by pedestal and cross. The cross is erected in a square socket stone on a rough pedestal with chamferred top edges. A broken socket stone lies close by.

Finberg, H. P. R., 1946, Childe's tomb, 265-80 (Article in Serial). SDV259009.

Royal Air Force, 1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1890, 4389 (Aerial Photograph). SDV169268.

Hoskins, W. G., 1952, The Making of the Agrarian Landscape, 40-58 (Article in Monograph). SDV320933.

A cross, standing in this vicinity in the 17th century could not be found by Crossing. The present cross was erected about 1910. It is said to now include some original material and stands in its original position.

Fox, A., 1969, Swincombe Survey, 48-9 (Report - Survey). SDV250998.

Grinsell, L. V., 1978, Dartmoor Barrows, 153 (Article in Serial). SDV273224.

(Site visited 20/9/1975) Cairn, diameter 9.0 meters, height 0.3 meters with modern retaining circle 5.4 meters in diameter and 0.3 meters high; central cist placed south-east/north-west. Crossing says "the stones appear to have been artificially shaped, the kistvaen not being of such rude construction as the example generally found. On this account it would appear to be of less antiquity, though in plan precisely similar". The site is crowned by a modern cross on a large plinth. Monument restored by Dartmoor Preservation Association in approximately 1890. Other details: Lydford 96.

Starkey, F. H., 1983, Dartmoor Crosses and Some Ancient Tracks, 36-7 (Monograph). SDV345128.

Hemery, E., 1983, High Dartmoor, 344, 359-61 (Monograph). SDV249702.

Masson Phillips, E. N., 1984, Supplementary Notes on the Ancient Stone Crosses of Devon (Seventh Paper), 144-5 (Article in Serial). SDV345276.

It has been suggested by Crossing and by some recent writers that the head of the original cross on Childe's Tomb might be that which for a time, lay at the foot of the standing cross in Fox Tor Newtake. It later disappeared but photographs show it to have been of the usual Dartmoor type of roughly rectangular section, and consequently of an earlier period then the surviving fragment of the original socket-stone which lies near the restored monument. This indicates that the missing cross from Childe's Tomb would have been of octagonal section. If, as Finberg (1946) has shown, Childe was the 11th century Ordulf II of Tavistock, then the cross was a postumous, not a contemporary, memorial and the so-called tomb was in fact a cenotaph. Other details: Figures 6-11.

Crossing, W., 1987, Ancient Stone Crosses of Dartmoor and its Borderland. Revised Edition, 88-93 (Monograph). SDV268145.

The cross allegedly commemorates Childe, a local folk lore character who supposedly froze to death on the moors in the reign of Edward III (1327-1377). ("Childe" is now inexplicably ascribed to the cist). Other details: Originally pubished in 1902..

Turner, J. R., 1990, Ring Cairns, Stone Circles and Related Monuments on Dartmoor, 47, 75, E33 (Article in Serial). SDV229817.

Platform circle. Nearly complete ring of kerb stones, 4.0 meters internal diameter, enclosing flat-topped cairn 0.4 meters high with central cist. Kerb circle crowned by modern cross. Other details: E33.

Butler, J., 1993, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Four - The South-East, 218-220, Map 64, Figure 64.2 (Monograph). SDV337765.

Childe's Tomb cairn at SX62577029 of circa 9.0 metres by 0.3 metres high with a cist. The cross stands in line with others to the east and west once marking the ancient 'Monks Path' across this part of the moor. The cist was cleared out in 1882 but it had already been rifled and both cover and one of the end stones were missing. It was exceptionally large, the single side slab still in position measuring 1.7 metres long. Little can now be seen of it under the bridge of granite posts supporting the cross but Crossing noted that the stones appeared to have been artificially shaped. The cairn is now spread and ruined but its original state would have provided an ideal base for the cross and its pedestal. A kerb retaining circle once surrounded the cairn and the stones remaining have been re-erected around part of the circumference, though mason's marks show that at least one of these is a recent addition. Outside its base a ring of rubble no doubt originally formed the covering mound for the cist.

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

Cairn and cross shown on survey slightly to the south-west at SX62497026.

National Monuments Record, 2020, Pastscape, 443322, SX67SW31 (Website). SDV363416.

Cairn, cist and cross at SX 62577029 known as Childe's Tomb.
A cross, standing in this vicinity in the 17th century couldnot be found by Crossing. The present cross was erected about 1910. It is said to now include some original material and stands in its original position. The cross is erected in a square socket stone on a rough pedestal with
chamferred top edges. A broken socket stone lies close by. The cross allegedly commemorates Childe, a local folk lore character who supposedly froze to death on the moors in the reign
of Edward III (1327-1377). ("Childe" is now inexplicably ascribed to the cist).
Field Investigation on 12th August 1977. The remains of a cairn containing a cist, known as Childe's
Tomb, situated on a north-facing slope west of the River Swincombe at 365 metres OD. A restored cross, set in a socket stone, has been mounted on a pedestal, over the cist. The cairn averages 9.5 metres in diameter and 0.4 metres high and is encompassed by a kerb circle. The cist measures 1.4 metres by 0.5metres internally. The broken socket stone referred to by Masson Phillips could not be seen.
It has been suggested by Crossing and by some recent writers that the head of the original cross on Childe's Tomb might be that which for a time, lay at the foot of the standing cross in Fox Tor Newtake. It later disappeared but photographs show it to have been of the usual Dartmoor type of roughly rectangular section, and consequently of an earlier period then the surviving fragment of the original socket-stone which lies near the restored monument. This indicates that the missing cross from Childe's Tomb would have been of octagonal section. If, as Finberg has shown, Childe was the 11th century Ordulf II of Tavistock, then the cross was a postumous, not a contemporary, memorial and the so-called tomb was in fact a cenotaph.
Field Investigation on 8th June 1988. At SX 62577029. A much disturbed cairn, 9 metres in diameter and 0.3 metres high with a modern 'kerb' of blocks and slabs, 5.8 metres in diameter and 0.5 metres high, set upon the mound. At the centre is a well built cist 1.4 metres long, 0.5 metres wide and 0.6 metres deep. Over this is a two tier pedestal of eight well trimmed blocks, of three different lengths; a further half buried block lies south of the monumenet. Upon this is a replacement socket stone and cross, cut at Holne in 1885 with a total height of 1.4 metres. Near a large block, 5 metres east of the cairn, is the broken socket stone of the original cross.

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

'Childe's Tomb (remains of) Cross on (Cist and Cairn)' shown on modern mapping.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8630 - Fox Tor Newtake Duchy Farms Survey

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