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Summary

An enclosed hut settlement of possible nine huts. The internal diameters vary from 3.5m to 7.0m with walling averaging 1.9m thick and 0.5m high. The majority of the entrances are to the south-east. The huts have levelled interiors and are generally in good condition. A further hut outside the enclosure is in good condition with a levelled interior. The internal diameter is 4.5m with walling 2.5m wide and 0.8m high. The entrance is not visible.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1012776: Enclosure with hut circles north of Bala Brook intake

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX66SE29
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 441846
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX66SE/88
• Old SAM County Ref: 381
• Old SAM Ref: 20579

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• ENCLOSED HUT CIRCLE SETTLEMENT (Constructed, Bronze Age - 2200 BC (Between) to 701 BC (Between))

Full description

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

Enclosure with ten 'Hut Circles' shown on 19th century map.

Royal Air Force, 1946 - 1949, Royal Air Force Aerial Photographs, 1890 2279 (Aerial Photograph). SDV342938.

Photograph taken on 10th December 1946.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1950, SX66SE29 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV145226.

(14/04/1950) Enclosed hut group, north of Bala Brook, intake. Ten huts in a walled enclosure on the left bank of Bala Brook. The enclosure wall is massive, narrowing on the stream side. The huts are terraced into the hillside, built of large boulders. Six huts are free standing, four are attached to the wall. The entrance is to the north-west on the upper side, slightly recurved. On the lower side, the wall is incomplete, either fallen away into the stream or removed by the water board whilst making the intake. The condition is fairly good, but deep in bracken.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1977, SX66SE29 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV145167.

(22/12/1977) Centred at SX 67156297, on a south-west facing clitter strewn slope, is an enclosed settlement abutting on the terrace overlooking the Bala Brook. It is semi-circular on plan measuring 110.0m northeast-southwest by 70.0m northwest-southeast and occupies 0.65 ha.
The tumbled rubble walling is up to 3.0m wide and 1.0m high. A number of small gaps are visible on the south east side; one of these is possibly an entrance. An inturned entrance 2.0m wide is visible on the north side. A yard is attached to the inside of the western wall of the enclosure. A number of small internal walls are visible within the enclosure. (Due to the scale of the re-survey only the largest is portrayed). There are nine huts inside and one outside the enclosure, three being attached to the enclosure walling. All but one of the huts inside the enclosure are of type 2. The other at SX 67796297, is of type 1, possibly built on the remains of type 2. The internal diameters vary from 3.5m to 7.0m with walling averaging 1.9m thick and 0.5m high. The majority of the entrances are to the south-east. The huts have levelled interiors and are generally in good condition.
The hut outside the enclosure is type 2 and is in good condition with a levelled interior. The internal diameter is 4.5m with walling 2.5m wide and 0.8m high. The entrance is not visible and the hut is attached to the enclosure walling. No field system is visible in the area. (Type sites: 1, SX 56 SE 19, 2, SX 56 NE 71)
Surveyed at 1:10 000 on PFD.

National Monuments Record, 1977, SX6762, 2/307-8 (Aerial Photograph). SDV177951.

Photograph taken on 14th April 1977.

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

Site visited on 10th May 1977. The pound is present with ten hut circles within it of average diameter 7 - 8 metres. Another hut circle lies just outside the pound wall and is integral with it, just inside the water board fencing at SX67086300. Two hut circles adjoining and well preserved lie midway between this pound and the one to the north-west at SX67066303. There is a possible pound entrance at the south east. One hut circle the third most westerly in the pound has been rebuilt as a tinners cache with a small entrance built of granite blocks and what appears to have been a corbelled roof. This hut has a prominent door jamb still in position on the south east side.

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.

Seven hut circles visible on 1977 aerial photograph, two attached to internal wall.

Butler, J., 1993, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Four - The South-East, 103-4, Map 57, Figure 57.1 (Monograph). SDV337765.

Enclosure 'A' at 'Zeal Hill South' is triangular in plan and which seems to have been re-used as a cattle pound and in an earlier period served as a base for the tinners. The massive boundary wall has been topped by loose rubble shrouding the 2 metre thick Bronze Age core in places. The circuit is broken at the south-east corner where the bank has been cut back to a precipitous drop of 12 metres to the river. The tinners must have altered the course of the river before the present weirs were constructed. Of the many breaks to accommodate the various tracks across the interior only the gap in the north wall seems to be original, though widened. Eleven huts are crowded into the northern half of the enclosure with another outside the circuit wall. Many huts are in fair condition and open towards the south.

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.

'Enclosed Settlement' shown on modern mapping with eleven hut circles.

Historic England, 2020, National Heritage List for England, 1012776 (National Heritage List for England). SDV363414.

This enclosure lies above the north bank of Bala Brook, close to another and to two conjoined hut circles which lie between the enclosures. The enclosure is roughly semi- circular in shape and is circa 0.75 hectares in area. The wall, incorporating some large boulders, is up to 0.75 metres in height and up to 4 metres in width, it narrows along the straighter, incomplete side above the stream bank. There are possible entrances at the north-west and south-east and ten hut circles in the enclosure, which is cut by the water intake fence. The huts are up to 12 metres in diameter with walls up to a metre in height and 2 metres in thickness, they have entrances on the west or north-west side and some are set into the slope. A tinner's cache has been built into one of the western huts.

Cunis, E, 2023, Images of huts in settlement north of Bala Brook (Photograph). SDV365312.

(06/02/2023) Site visited and series of images taken recording the condition of the huts in the Bala Brook settlement, showing condition and current vegetation growth. Current condition is noted as worse; thick bracken but also some hawthorn trees as well as gorse. Image taken near enclosure wall in north (approximately SX6715 6301) facing north-north-east.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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