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Summary

Central hut consists of a double wall of upright slabs and boulders around 1.4 metres wide and up to 1.2 metres high enclosing an area 11.2 metres in diameter. An entrance lies in the south-south-east margin. Range of finds dated to the Iron Age including an iron smelting bowl furnace, a stone spindle whorl, two hammer stones, a rubber and scraps of flint. Also a flat rim of a heavy storage jar with fingertip markings and sherds of fine ware and a lot of coarse shelly ware were found. The soil accumulation suggests a long occupation of this house. 2016 reassessment of the finds has revised the date of the ironworking to early post-Roman (AD428-633); the sole evidence for this period from the moor.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1016691: Coaxial field system and prehistoric settlements at Kestor

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX68NE/9/1
• Old SAM Ref: 28714.2

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• HUT CIRCLE (Early Iron Age to VII - 700 BC to 700 AD)
• BOWL FURNACE (Constructed, V to VII - 428 AD (Post) to 633 AD (Post)) + Sci.Date

Full description

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

'Hut Circle (Remains of)' shown on 19th century map.

Royal Air Force, 1947, RAF/CPE/UK/2082, 3286-8 (Aerial Photograph). SDV295065.

Fox, A., 1954, Excavations at Kestor (Article in Serial). SDV304231.

The largest hut circle in the settlement, eccentrically placed in an irregular oval enclosure. Eccentric setting of 10 timber uprights to support the roof. The post holes were arranged round a shallow stone edged depression, around 1.8 metres in diameter, axially to the line of the entrance passage. The depression filled with moist black soil and a stone filled drainage channel led out of it to soak away beneath the lowest point of the hut walls.
The house was entered by a narrow paved passage 700-900 millimetres wide and down two steps. In centre and to right of entrance there was accumulation of 150-200 millimetres of black soil, beneath which a small circular pit reddened filled with charcoal and a small bowl furnace lined with slag were found.
Living quarters were to left of entrance and slightly raised in contrast to working area floor was clean. Small hearth on a flat stone near back wall and patches of rough paving laid apparently haphazard.
A stone spindle whorl, two hammer stones, a rubber and scraps of flint were found in this superior part of the house. A flat rim of a heavy storage jar with fingertip markings, also sherds of fine ware and a lot of coarse shelly ware also found. Amount of soil accumulation suggest a long occupation of this house.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1956-1974, SX68NE14 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV274636.

The Kestor Settlement was investigated in 1951-2, primarily by the excavation of the 'Round Pound' and its hut, both of which have walls up to 6ft thick. The hut was found to have had timber uprights supporting the roof though the centre was apparently open to the sky. The living quarters were to the left of the narrow paved entrance and to the right a working floor in which was found a small bowl furnace lined with iron slag. Pottery and other domestic material were of the Iron Age 'A' tradition, about 400 BC (Ordnance Survey citing Kestor 1952 Interim Report).

National Monument Record, 1977, SX6686, 2/59-63 (Aerial Photograph). SDV274641.

National Monument Record, 1977, SX6686, 6/54-56 (Aerial Photograph). SDV274641.

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

Visible on aerial photographs, recorded on map overlay.

Gerrard, S., 1990-2002, Monument Protection Programme. Archaeological Item Dataset., MPP 149132, 27/4/1997 (Report - Survey). SDV277946.

Stone hut circle at SX66388684 forming part of a prehistoric settlement within the Kestor coaxial field system. Diameter 10.4 metres. Double orthostat wall 1.5 metres wide, 1.3 metres high. Internal area 84.90 square metres. Lies within the Roundy Pound. The door faces 156 degrees, measures 0.8 metres wide, is defined by a large edge set orthostat on west-south-west and on the east-north-east by a large orthostat leaning into the passageway. Grass and patches of rushes.

Probert, S. A. J., 1991, Castor Parallel System (Plan - measured). SDV229808.

Depicted on plan.

Butler, J., 1991, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Two - The North, 170-174, Map 36, Figure 36.2 (Monograph). SDV219155.

'Centre Hut' of 11.4 metres diameter at 'Round Pound, Kes Tor' had been occupied by iron workers with two hollows in the subsoil being identified as a furnace which still contained some slag, and a forging pit. Otherwise the structure was a typical round house with cobbled entrance, stone sill and steps down into the interior which was partly paved. A Bronze Age flint arrowhead was found just outside the entrance and amongst the debris on the floor were some pottery sherds, flints and a whetstone. An anvil, pebbles and two hammer stones may have formed part of the ironworkers kit.

Probert, S. A. J., 1991, Shovel Down Survey (Report - Survey). SDV359365.

The central hut consists of a double wall of upright slabs and boulders around 1.4 metres wide and up to 1.2 metres high enclosing an area 11.2 metres in diameter. An entrance lies in the south-south-east margin.

Griffiths, D. M., 1995, Coin found in hut circle at Kestor (Unknown). SDV274588.

3rd century Roman coin found in hut circle by school child. Now in Okehampton Museum.

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

Depicted on the GIS layer.

Gerrard, S., 2016, Archaeology and Bracken: the Teigncombe Prehistoric Roundhouse Excavation, 1-63 (Article in Serial). SDV360643.

Quinnell, H., 2017, Dartmoor and Prehistoric to Early Medieval Tinworking, 24 (Article in Monograph). SDV360639.

The evidence of ironworking at Kestor has recently been reassessed by Peter Crew. Excavated by Aileen Fox and published in 1954 it was assumed to date to the Iron Age but there is now a radiocarbon date from the iron slag calibrating to AD 428 - AD 633. Crew considers the ironworking to be of a trial nature, rather than part of an established industry (citing Gerrard, 2016). This site was previously considered as a high point of Iron Age activity on Dartmoor, but currently provides the sole evidence for early post-Roman activity on the moor.

Historic England, 2023, National Heritage List for England, 1016691 (National Heritage List for England). SDV365228.

Within Scheduled area.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds

• FDV6647 - SHERD (Middle Bronze Age - 1500 BC? to 1001 BC)
• FDV6646 - POLISHER (Iron Age - 700 BC? to 42 AD)
• FDV6648 - SHERD (Iron Age - 700 BC? to 42 AD)
• FDV6645 - SPINDLE WHORL (Iron Age - 700 BC? to 42 AD)
• FDV6081 - COIN (II to III - 200 AD to 299 AD)
• FDV6682 - SLAG (V to VII - 428 AD to 633 AD) + Sci.Date

Associated Events

• EDV6903 - Excavation at Round Pound (Batworthy Pound), Kestor

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