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Summary

One of a pair of hut circles on Horridge Common to the west of Rippon Tor on Horridge Common. Both turf-covered huts are around 7.5 metres in diameter and are hard to detect on the hillside. A length of boundary wall leads south from the hut circle.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1019602: Two stone hut circles and a length of boundary walling 250m west of Rippon Tor
• SHINE: Earthworks and stone walls of a Bronze Age parallel reave system on Mountsland, Halshanger and Horridge Commons, comprising the remains of a field system, hut circle settlements, enclosures and cairns, and surface remains of 19th century Hemsworthy Mine

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX77NW103
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 1342987
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX77NW/410
• Old SAM Ref: 24126

Monument Type(s) and Dates

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

Full description

National Monuments Record, 1980, NMR SF1746 (Aerial Photograph). SDV294996.

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

Two hut circles visible at SX74437557 and SX74477557.

Butler, J., 1991, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume One - The East, 42-3, Fig. 5.3, Map 5 (Monograph). SDV299725.

Butler’s hut circle 1 measures approximately 7.4 metres in diameter and is located with a neighbouring hut (2) around 200 metres below the summit of the tor. These huts are hard to locate and no entrances are visible in the turf-covered walls, which stand only 0.3 metres above the interiors but still show signs of being levelled into the slope. Possible remains of an enclosure consisting of an arc of stones about 30 metres in length can be seen leading from this hut.
Although this settlement was built between two reaves it does not appear to have been integrated into the regular field system.

Gerrard, S., 1993-2010, Monument Protection Programme Alternative Action Report, MPP 152586 (Report - non-specific). SDV145710.

Site visit 8th April 1999. Stone hut circle and a length of boundary walling 240 metres west of Rippon Tor. Hut circle 7.6 metres diamter, earthwork wall 1.6 metres wide, 0.5 metres high. Wall leading away from this hut is of orthostatic construction. Vegetation: grass, gorse and bilberry.

GeoInformation Group Ltd, 2010, 1:625 2010 Colour (12.5cm resolution) (Aerial Photograph). SDV346026.

Hut circle faintly visible on the aerial photography.

Newman, P., 2013, An Archaeological Assessment of Halshanger and Horridge Commons, Dartmoor, Devon, 8, Table 1 (Report - Assessment). SDV356396.

Hut circle within the Rippon Tor newtake. Condition stable. Vegetation: short grassland.

Newman, P., 2013, Halshanger Sites Visited and Confirmed (Report - Survey). SDV351113.

Site visited and grid reference confirmed.

English Heritage, 2014, National Heritage List for England (National Heritage List for England). SDV355683.

Two stone hut circles and a length of boundary walling 250m west of Rippon Tor.
The monument includes two stone hut circles and a length of boundary walling situated on the west facing slope of Rippon Tor overlooking Blackslade Mire. The interior of the western stone hut circle measures 7m in diameter and is surrounded by a 1.7m wide stoney bank standing up to 0.5m high. A south west facing gap in the wall may represent an original doorway. The eastern building survives as a 1.6m wide stoney bank standing up to 0.5m high surrounding an internal area measuring 7.6m in diameter. The boundary wall leads south from this building and is formed by orthostats.
The two stone hut circles and length of walling 250m west of Rippon Tor survive comparatively well and represent an important source of environmental and archaeological information for the settlement of Dartmoor in the later prehistoric period. The settlement lies within the nationally important Rippon Tor coaxial field system and close to several significant funerary cairns, which are the subject of separate schedulings.

Newman, P., 2015, Rippon Tor Premier Archaeological Landscape, Dartmoor National Park, Devon, 59 (Report - Survey). SDV359145.

Hut circle 230 metres west of Rippon Tor. One of two large hut circles on the western slope of Rippon Tor. Condition is stable. SX74426 75579.

Various, 2018-2020, PALs Condition Recording forms, RT5 (Worksheet). SDV362781.

Visited January 2019. Severe vegetation encroachment. Photo taken

Various, 2018-2020, PALs Condition Recording photographs, RT5 (Photograph). SDV363073.

Visited January 2019. Photo taken showing the vegetation encroachment Looking north west

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV6433 - Assessment of Halsanger Common, Horridge Common and Rippon Tor
• EDV6836 - Rippon Tor Premier Archaeological Landscape survey

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