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Summary

A cluster of eight hut circles are contained by a sub-rectangular enclosure immediately SE of Cullacombe Head. The features were surveyed during the winter of 2000/01 though not investigated until August 2001 when bracken made detailed examination of the site impossible.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1020461: Prehistoric settlements, fields and enclosures within the Shapley Common coaxial field system, 770m south of Challacombe Cross

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX68SE384
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 1346477
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX68SE/10/4
• Old SAM Ref: 22390.04

Monument Type(s) and Dates

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

Full description

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

Outline fairly clear on the 1940s aerial photograph, with a hut close to the eastern side.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1953/1978, SX68SE31 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV314705.

(19/03/1953) A number of hut circles with associated field system. Huts vary in condition from being barely discernible to a fairly good state of preservation. Such entrances as can be traced are in the south, hut a has large stones built into its wall. 16 hut circles, mostly double walled.
(06/06/1978) The southern group consists of 13 huts and includes the two unpublished huts at SX 6938 8223 and SX 6940 8206. They vary in condition from barely discernible to fairly good. The visible entrances are to the south. The walls average 1.5 metres in width and range in height up to 1.4 metres. A hut at SX 6944 8222 has remarkably large stones built into the walls. The field system, centred at SX 6946 8229, consists of small, irregular fields, enclosed by low stone walls.
Surveyed at 1:2500 (MSD).

Ancient Monuments, 1964/2001, Hut circles on Shapley Common (Schedule Document). SDV314699.

(Estimated 2000) SX 6940 8197 (part of) Prehistoric settlements, fields and enclosures within the Shapley Common coaxial field system, 770m south of Challacombe Cross. The southernmost of three enclosures survives as a 1m wide and 0.6m high orthostatic wall curving south from a hut circle with an internal diameter of 5.5m.

Butler, J., 1991, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume One - The East, Map 23 (Monograph). SDV299725.

Depicted and described by Butler.

Newman, P., 2002, Headland Warren and the Birch Tor and Vitifer Mines, S. Probert (Report - Survey). SDV363213.

(01/08/2001) Centred SX 6942 8201. A cluster of eight hut circles are contained by a sub-rectangular enclosure immediately SE of Cullacombe Head. The features were surveyed during the winter of 2000/01 though not investigated until August 2001 when bracken made detailed examination of the site impossible.
The hut circles and enclosure have previously formed part of SX 68 SE 31.

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

Enclosure outline and a number of huts / possible huts visible.
This source used in combination with lidar data to digitise feature, as no spatial survey data seems to exist from the 2000/01 survey visits, perhaps due to the vegetation mentioned. The Ordnance Survey historic mapping and modern Mastermap data show four possible huts but these appear to be inaccurately located north of the settlement. The Scheduled Ancient Monument area is also mis-aligned, probably based on the inaccurate OS data [Richards, A. F., 07/04/2022].

Environment Agency WMS, 2019, LiDAR DTM data (1m resolution), 2019 (Cartographic). SDV362956.

Enclosure partially visible on the lidar data; although it does not entirely cover this area.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV7139 - Headland Warren and the Birch Tor and Vitifer Mines Survey (Ref: A1/20/2001, A1/34/2002)

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.