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Summary

A Bronze Age settlement visible as a sub-circular enclosure 58 by 65 metres with rubble walling 3 metres wide and 0.6 metres high with a gap on its northern side. Three huts lie within it but only one is complete. This has a levelled interior of 4.5 metres diameter and walling 1.2 metres thick and 0.6 metres high. The others are only visible as an inner facing of orthostatic slabs and a levelled area with a circumference of small stones. This site is on the local list of Nationally Important Dartmoor sites.

Location

Protected Status

• SHINE: Walling remains of a Bronze Age hut circle settlement 400 metres west of Dockwell Hole, comprising a sub-circular enclosure with at least three internal hut circles and further external huts

Other References/Statuses

• Dartmoor Non-designated Heritage Asset (Evidential): NI site
• National Monuments Record: SX66SE12
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 441775
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX66SE/97

Monument Type(s) and Dates

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

Full description

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1951/1979, SX66SE12, Enclosure (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV169282.

(06/07/1951) Centred at SX69306458. An enclosure with a turf covered bank of earth and granite blocks and boulders. The wall is about 1 metre high by 0.4 metres wide. Within the southern part of the enclosure are two hut circles with two more on the northern side.
Two hut circles, C and D, and adjacent enclosure also containing hut circles A and B. The enclosure is bounded by a strong wall, composed of a turf-covered bank of earth and granite blocks and boulders. There is no positive sign of an entrance. A later, probably post-medieval enclosure wall passes through the south east part of the enclosure and can be seen in the aerial photograph quite easily. It is not an original part of the feature.
(26/07/1979) To the north-east of Dockwell Ridge on a sheltered slope at 307 metres OD is an enclosed settlement within a sub-circular enclosure 58 metres by 65 metres with rubble walling 3.0 metres wide by 0.6 metres high. A 13 metre gap on the north side presumably represents an entrance. A sub-rectangular yard 10.0 metres by 5.6 metres abuts the inner face of the north-east side while a sub-oval levelled area of 7.0 metres across is attached to the inside on the north-west. Of the three huts within the enclosure only one is complete and identifiable as Type I.

West Air Photography, 1975, BT1712, 9-10 (Aerial Photograph). SDV169281.

Other details: The airport (?).

Turner, J. L., 1979, An Unusual Dartmoor Pound, 1 (Leaflet). SDV169283.

Pound was visited by Turner, who commented briefly on its construction.

National Monuments Record, 1979, NMR SF1457, 383-384 (Aerial Photograph). SDV172921.

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

Oval enclosure containing one hut circle and a second possible larger hut circle.
Two hut circles just outside enclosure SX66SE/97 at ?SX66926462 and ?SX66936463, the later abutting a ditch. Visible on 1979 National Monuments Record aerial photograph.
(NB: detail of external huts previously included on MDV25746, due to incorrect NGRs quoted, Richards, A. F., 06/08/2021).

Butler, J., 1993, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Four - The South-East, 112, 143, Map 57, Figure 57.12 (Monograph). SDV337765.

(Figure 57.12 is orientated in the wrong way. North should be to the east of that indicated. AR)
'Parnell Hill' is a small and isoalted hut circle settlement overlooking Dockwell Hole. An oval pound surrounds four hut circles and a small enclosure '1' of 12 metres in diameter. Only a fragment of wall remains around Hut '2' and Hut '3' was probably a pen attached to the boundary. Hut '4' of 5.5 metres diameter and Hut '5' of 6.5 metres diameter are reasonably well preserved on the edge of a stony patch of ground. A pair of much larger buildings of 7.5 metres diameter were erected just outside the north side.

Gerrard, S., 2006, Dartmoor Nationally Important Sites (Cartographic). SDV345607.

This site was considered for designation as a Scheduled Ancient Monument during the Monument Protection Programme. The programme ended before the entire list of sites was successfully scheduled so this is included on a local list of Nationally Important Sites.

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' shown on modern mapping as double walled oval enclosure with five or six internal features and two external hut circles to the north-east. An entrance is shown to the north.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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