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Summary

Settlement comprising 37 Bronze Age hut circles and four sub-rectangular enclosures. Within the guardianship area managed by Dartmoor National Park Authority.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1013428: A stone hut circle 650m east of Merrivale Bridge forming part of a partially enclosed stone hut circle settlement
• Scheduled Monument 1013427: A partially enclosed stone hut circle settlement, round cairn, post medieval farmstead, millstone and stone cutting pits 580m ESE of Merrivale Bridge

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX57SE19
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 440079
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX57SE/53
• Old SAM County Ref: 332
• Old SAM Ref Revised: 12/01/1996
• Old SAM Ref: 24191

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• UNENCLOSED HUT CIRCLE SETTLEMENT (Bronze Age - 2200 BC (Between) to 701 BC (Between))

Full description

Wilkinson, J. G., 1862, On British Remains on Dartmoor, 115-117 (Article in Serial). SDV277122.

Other details: Plate 8.

Baring Gould, S., 1895, Second Report of the Dartmoor Exploration Committee, 86 (Article in Serial). SDV271711.

Six of the huts were examined in 1895. Two of them yielded hearths.

Stephens, F. W., 1900, Sketch (Plan - sketch). SDV219154.

Worth, R. H., 1943, The Prehistoric Pounds of Dartmoor, 280-302 (Article in Serial). SDV320337.

Worth considers them to be Early Bronze Age. The enclosure at SX 556750 has been encroached upon by the garden of a cottage built in 1802.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1950, SX57SE19 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV219145.

Group of 38 hut circles and 3 enclosures.

Ancient Monuments, 1950, Untitled Source (Site Visit). SDV219147.

An open settlement of over 25 huts, some with small enclosures, which could represent paddocks. Most of the huts are large and well built; average diameters measure between 6.1 - 8.25 meters. Condition of the circles is fair, although the huts have been robbed for road metalling.

Royal Air Force, 1964, F63/58/6399, 042-3 (Aerial Photograph). SDV229824.

Group of hut circles and enclosures visible on air photographs.

St. Joseph, J. K. S., 1967, Unknown title, 60-61 (Article in Serial). SDV219152.

National Monuments Record, 1976, SX5574/1 (Aerial Photograph). SDV219153.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1980, SX57SE19 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV221726.

(25/02/1980) A group of three dozen hut circles and four enclosures, centred at SX 55597499, occupy 6.0ha of a slight NW slope. Six huts are within or attached to the enclosures; the remainder are free standing. All are on open moorland; bisected by the A 384. It is probable that the huts were originally of Type 2 (SX 56 NE 71) with double walling, but many have been robbed to varying degrees, so that typology is uncertain. Internal diameters range from extremes of 2.7m. to 8.2m. but are commonly Between 5.8m. and 7.2m.; walling is usually 1.3m. wide and 0.7m. high. Where visible entrances are to the S and SW.
Two enclosures 'A' and 'D' have a little double walling but are mainly of single-non-contiguous blocks and slabs up to 0.8m. high. Part of 'D' consists of a band of clitter. Each of the enclosures has breaks in the walling but no clear entrance, and a single hut terminating a length of wall.
Enclosures 'B' and 'C' are heavily walled with double slabs and piled blocks, 2.2m. wide and up to 1.0m. high. 'B' has an entrance gap of 2.7m. in the S and incorporates two hut circles. 'C' has three gaps, two probably modern, in the NW and SW and an original, 2.0m. wide in the E. There is one internal hut circle and another, much ruined, on the outer face of the NW wall.
There is no obvious field associated with the settlement. Surveyed at 1:10 000 on MSD and at 1:2500.

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

Three enclosures and twenty hut circles are visible wholly or partly on map SX57SE. Two hut circles are within an enclosure at SX55517496.

Butler, J., 1991, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Two - The North, 72-74 (Monograph). SDV219155.

Part of the Merrivale Bridge East settlement. A well preserved settlement despite the proximity of the road, which has bisected at least one hut circle. Stone-robbing has taken place however and when six huts were excavated in 1895 by the Dartmoor Exploration Committee they were found to have been previously disturbed, possibly by road menders (Baring Gould). A series of stone pits is also noticeable in the area; evidence that this resource has been utilised in the past. 36 hut circles and four enclosures identified, with most of the huts unenclosed. The huts vary in size, from 2.7 to 9.5 meters in diameter; the majority are between 6.0 and 7.0 meters. Where entrances are visible they tend to face south or south-west. The enclosures are irregular constructions sited in stony areas, despite area of stone-free hillside in the vicinity and seem to have been built after the huts, their irregular double-slabbed enclosing walls a result of the inclusion of many earth-fast granite boulders in the perimeter. The settlement lies within 50 meters of the Merrivale stone rows and associated monuments but are likely to be a later construction, deliberately sited near to the ancient monuments.

Gerrard, S., 1994, MPP/133501 (Site Visit). SDV219156.

See linked records in Relationships section for further detail.

Griffith, F. M., 1996, DAP/ABF, 3-6 (Aerial Photograph). SDV319876.

Probert, S. A. J. + Fletcher, M. J., 2000, The Merrivale Guardianship Area, Walkhampton, Devon, 6-7 (Report - Survey). SDV344969.

(21/01/2000) Centred SX55597498. Thirty seven hut circles lie on both sides of the B3357 on the SW flank of Little Mis Tor some 500m E of Merrivale Bridge.
The huts are in varying degrees of preservation, those nearest the road generally having been heavily robbed to provide stone,while four (25, 26, 27 and 28) on the S fringe of the site have had slit trenches cut into their interiors or extremities. All the huts have been terraced into the gentle SW facing slope to provide level, slightly ovoid interiors which range in diameter from 2.6m (23) to 9.3m (21). The huts generally possess low, well-built walls averaging 1.4m wide and 0.5m high many displaying signs of a double ring of orthostsat with a rubble infill. Entrances are apparent in 18 huts and all are oriented towards the S quadrant.
One hut (5) now exists as a stoney crescent on the N verge of the road. Limited reoccupation of the huts or their sites is evidenced at the single hut (36) which lies within the central enclosure and has a small circular structure built into its S side while hut 21 displays several phases of external refurbishment. The date of these reoccupations is uncertain. The fragments of four sub-rectangular enclosures are associated with the huts. Varying in size from 0.06ha to 0.24ha they are bounded by stoney banks averaging 1.5m wide and 0.6m high. These features have suffered heavily from stone robbing and none possess obvious entrances. Five hut circles (8, 15, 16, 24 and 36) are associated with these enclosures, three (8, 16 and 24) are adjoined by the enclosure walls (see hut records).

Dartmoor National Park + English Heritage, 2004, Merrivale: An Archaeological Landscape (Leaflet). SDV320201.

Ordnance Survey, 2010, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV344030.

Historic England, 2021-2022, NRHE to HER website, Accessed 23/08/2021 (Website). SDV364039.

Includes a brief accessible account of the remains for visitors (English Heritage: Edited by Katy Carter, 2004, Heritage Unlocked: Guide to free sites in Devon, Dorset and Somerset, 26-27).

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV337 - Unnamed Event
• EDV4830 - Survey of guardianship area, Merrivale

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