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Summary

Farmstead also known as Coxs Lake, Coxs-Lake and Coxlake. Shown on 19th and early 20th century maps

Location

Protected Status

• SHINE: Remains of prehistoric field systems and hut circle settlements, as well as funerary monuments above the Cherry Brook Valley, medieval field systems around Huccaby Rings and deserted Coxlake farmstead as well as the Brimpts Tin Mine leat

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX67SE81
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 443094
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX67SE/35

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• FARMSTEAD (Constructed, Early Medieval to Early 20th Century - 1066 AD (Between) to 1901 AD (Between))
• SCHOOL (XVIII to XIX - 1800 AD to 1850 AD?)

Full description

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

Small square enclosure with several buildings shown on 19th century map.

Ordnance Survey, 1904 - 1906, Second Edition Ordnance Survey 25 inch Map (Cartographic). SDV325644.

Outline of enclosure and buildings shown on early 20th century map.

Royal Air Force, 1947, RAF/CPE/UK/2149, 4424-5 (Aerial Photograph). SDV282746.

Photograph taken on 11th June 1947.

Royal Air Force, 1961, 58/4424, F43.179 (Aerial Photograph). SDV280247.

Photograph taken on 25th May 1961.

Linehan, C. D., 1966, Deserted Sites and Rabbit-Warrens on Dartmoor, Devon, 124-5, Table 2 (Article in Serial). SDV307246.

A deserted building with enclosures known as Cocks Lake. Building shows late development.

Haynes, R. G., 1966-1969, Ruined Sites on Dartmoor, 20,Plan (Un-published). SDV150434.

(05/11/1966) A longhouse with five rooms and a small modern house added. Windows, doors visible on north and south. Unusual fireplace of dry stone construction and overgrown by vegetation.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1980, SX67SE81 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV248974.

(05/03/1980) At SX 65397422 is a building complex with five or six rooms, their tumbled walling measuring 0.7m. thick and averaging 0.9m. high. The large room at the east end (SX 65397422) appears to have had a cross passage; the adjacent room has a fireplace in the west wall, the southerly building at SX 65387421, with window spaces and a possible fireplace at its east end, may be a later dwelling. It is impossible to be certain whether the ruins represent one farmhouse and shippon, two dwellings and a shippon or a longhouse that has been subsequently extended. The general impression is that of a 18th century or later steading (see plan and GPs).
Surveyed at 1:2500 on MSD.

Hemery, E., 1983, High Dartmoor, 448 (Monograph). SDV249702.

Cox Lake served as a school for the local community until it was replace as such by St Raphael's, Huccaby.

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

Mostly overgrown by trees but visible on the 1947 aerial photograph within a field system.

Royal Commission for the Historical Monuments of England, 1987-1993, Duchy Farms Project Survey Visit, M. J. Fletcher (Report - Survey). SDV350839.

(16/04/1988) Coxlake, Cox-Lake or Cocks Lake, now part of Sherberton Farm was, in 1786, a newtake of just over 28 acres with a house. By 1839 the house was in ruins although the holding was still intact. The roofless ruin at SX65397422 which might incorporate the foundations of a longhouse lies down a shallow western slope. It is very dilapidated and covered by dense vegetation growth; parts of the walling have been rather crudely rebuilt. The modern 'house' or lean-to has been added to the south side and the walling is circa 1.4 metres high. The compact holding is sub-divided into small field plots which are bounded either by coursed drystone walls on average 1.1 metres high or cornditch-type banks which are 0.8 metres high, 2.9 metres wide earthen banks with one vertical revetted face accompanied by a wide ditch. Similar cornditch banks occur in the Medieval field system to the east on Brimpts Farm and also in places within the field pattern on Sherberton to the south-west. The fields now mostly under rough pasture and gorse may once have been under ridge and furrow.

Stanbrook, M., 1991, Old Dartmoor Schools Remembered, 73 (Monograph). SDV359884.

About a mile west of Brimpts, in the ruins of Cock's Lake Farm are the remains of a building with a doorway and fireplace which is known locally as 'The School House' or 'The School Teachers House', although no one knows when it was used. It may have been one of the dame schools supported by the Widecombe and Dartmoor Charity.

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

Considered under MPP but not recommended for scheduling.

White, P., 2013, Previously Unsurveyed Dartmoor Historic Farmsteads, Cocks Lake (Un-published). SDV352501.

Cocks Lake with a longhouse.

Ordnance Survey, 2016, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV359352.

Outline of structures shown on modern mapping.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV3462 - Survey at Huccaby Farm, Lydford
• EDV8632 - Sherberton Farm, Duchy Farms Survey
• EDV8409 - Dartmoor Royal Forest Project
• EDV8423 - Duchy Farms Project

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