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Summary

Enclosed hut circle settlement with four or five hut circles and a tinners' cache built into the northern wall. The enclosure measures 65.0 metres north-west to south-east and 80.0 metres north-east to south-west. There are four huts lie within the enclosure; their internal diameters vary from 3.0 metres to 6.5 metres, with walling averaging 1.3 metres thick and 0.5 metres high. The majority have eastern entrances The interiors are levelled; the general conditions is poor.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1004557: Enclosures and hut circles at Petre's Pits Bottom

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX66SE36
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 441873
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX66SE/80
• Old SAM County Ref: 1015B
• Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division: SX66SE36

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• ENCLOSED HUT CIRCLE SETTLEMENT (Constructed, Late Neolithic to Late Bronze Age - 3000 BC (Between) to 701 BC (Between))

Full description

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

Enclosure and two 'Hut Circles' shown on 19th century map.

Royal Air Force, 1946 - 1949, Royal Air Force Aerial Photographs, 1890 2282 & 2494 4046-7 (Aerial Photograph). SDV342938.

Photographs taken on 10th December 1946 and 11th March 1948.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1977, SX66SE36 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV363978.

(23/12/1977) SX 6618 6343 On a north-east facing slope at between 360-380 metres OD, is a sub-oval enclosed settlement. The enclosure measures 65.0 metres north-west to south-east and 80.0 metres north-east to south-west and occupies approximately 0.5 hectares. The double-faced orthostatic walling is 1.5 metres wide and 0.5 metres high, and there is a possible entrance to the south-east. A probable tinners' cache is located in the wall at SX 6616 6347 (See MDV13255). There are four Type 2 huts within the enclosure; their internal diameters vary from 3.0 metres to 6.5 metres, with walling averaging 1.3 metres thick and 0.5 metres high. The majority have eastern entrances The interiors are levelled; the general conditions is poor. No associated field system or cultivation plots are visible. Surveyed at 1:10 000 on PFD.

Robinson, R., 1977-1979, South Brent Parish Checklist (Worksheet). SDV151046.

Site visited on 11th May 1977. Pound walls which are roughly circular are low and fragmentary, 0.5 metres high and overgrown with heather. There are four low hut circles, which are 6 metres, 5.5 metres, 8 metres and 5 metres in diameter respectively two china clay culverts cross the pound. The pound wall adjacent to the river appears to have been rebuilt into a small rectangular building. The pound and hut circles are visible but indistinct on the 1948 aerial photograph. The site has now been scheduled.

National Monuments Record, 1980, SF1743, 48-50 (Aerial Photograph). SDV174615.

Photograph taken on 9th April 1980.

Robinson, R., 1984, List of Field Monument Warden Visits 1984 (Un-published). SDV343082.

Site visited on 19th March 1984.

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

Enclosure with four hut circles in the centre visible on 1946 and 1980 aerial photographs.

Butler, J., 1993, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Four - The South-East, 107, Map 57 Figure 57.6 (Monograph). SDV337765.

'Middle Brook Upper enclosure' is sub-circular with the best section with both layered and vertical slab facing is around the north-western edge. Here a leat cuts across the boundary next to a small chamber 2 metres long hollowed out of its wall, presumably a tinners' cache. To the south a pair of clay channels crosses the interior. Below the enclosure to the north the tinners' have cut back the bank at the beginning of the enormous excavations known as Petre's Pit Bottom. Four overgrown huts are grouped near the centre with the probable remains of another against the southern wall.

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

Enclosure visible on aerial photograph.

Ordnance Survey, 2020, MasterMap 2020 (Cartographic). SDV363413.

'Settlement' with an enclosure containing four hut circles on modern mapping.

Historic England, 2020, National Heritage List for England, 1004557 (National Heritage List for England). SDV363414.

Enclosures and Hut Circles at Petre's Pit Bottom. This monument which falls into two areas includes two enclosed stone hut circle settlements and later tinner’s caches situated on the southern side of the Middle Brook valley close to its confluence with Petre’s Pits Bottom on the lower north western slopes of Old Hill. The northern enclosure survives as a roughly oval enclosure containing up to five stone hut circles and a small tinner’s cache built into the northern wall of the enclosure. Four of the huts are free standing and the fifth is attached to the southern interior enclosure wall. The huts vary in diameter internally from 5 metres up to 8 metres and are defined by low walls up to 0.5 metres high and the largest has a curving interior division. The enclosure is cut by a leat relating to nearby tinworking activity and also by two china clay channels dating to the 19th century. The whole of the interior had been subject to peat accumulation and soil creep.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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