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Summary

Hut circle of 6 metres by 4.8 metres with walls 1.7 metres wide by 0.9 metres high and a western doorway within the northern enclosure at the Asssycombe Brook settlement

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1017981: Stone alignment, hut circle settlement, medieval long house and post-medieval farmstead at Assycombe

Other References/Statuses

• MPP Archaeological Item Dataset: 144162
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 443780
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX68SE/15/1
• Old SAM Ref: 28655
• Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division: SX68SE2
• Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division: SX68SE2

Monument Type(s) and Dates

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

Full description

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

'Hut Circle' shown on 19th century map.

Turner, J. R., 1976, Ancient Monuments on Forestry Commission Land. Fernworthy and Bellever (Report - non-specific). SDV351823.

Fernworthy Plantation. Assacombe 2C.
SX 65908284. Hut circle. 5.8 metres diameter. On a platform site cut into a west facing slope. Stone wall 1.6 metres thick. The largest surviving stone is the porch stone on the south side of the hut. Not investigated, has been planted over.
February 1976. Hut clear of trees and other debris. Clearance zone ringed by nine posts. Trees standing within clearance zone and trees outside are within falling distance of hut.
Included in 1955 Spooner and Dixon report (A) Region south of the Teign (Assacombe and Lowton), Site No. 11.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1976-78, SX68SE2, SX68SE2 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV278461.

Turner, J., 1978, Report of Work Carried Out by the Forestry Commission since January 1976 (Report - non-specific). SDV351816.

Trees removed.

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

Hut circle not visible on RAF aerial photos due to tree cover.

Gerrard, S., 1990-2002, Monument Protection Programme. Archaeological Item Dataset., MPP 144162 (Report - Survey). SDV277946.

(29/04/1997) Hut circle forming part of settlement at Assycombe. 6 metres by 4.8 metres, wall 1.7 metres wide, 0.9 metres high. Internal area 28.8 square metres. Oriented west-east. Doorway faces 188 degrees and is faced on the west side.

Butler, J., 1991, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Two - The North, 157, Map 35, Site 5 (Monograph). SDV219155.

Hut circle shown within the northern enclosure at 'Assycombe Brook settlement'.

Smith, N., 1992, Condition Survey of Identified Archaeology with Woodland Areas 1992 (Un-published). SDV351819.

Fernworthy. Assycombe. 1C/2C. Site visit 27th May 1992. Enclosure and hut circle in a clear-felled area on west facing slope near track. Condition stable. Site marked. Suggested current vegetation management regime be maintained. Photo.

Royal Commission for the Historical Monuments of England, 1993-1998, Dartmoor Royal Forest Project, S. Probert (Report - Survey). SDV346608.

(03/06/1995) Centred SX 65908285. Two hut circles and two small sub-rectangular structures lie in the NW corner of a former field belonging to Assycombe Farm and now part of Fernworthy Forest. All the features have in the past been overplanted with conifers but the area has been clear felled in recent years and is maintained as an open space by the Forestry Commission.
The larger hut, at SX 65908285, measures 5.2m N to S by 6.0m internally with an entrance marked by an upright granite post in the S side. The coursed boulder and roughly piled walls are 1.6m wide and 1.1m high. The site is terraced in the hillside.
At SX 65898286 in the NW corner of the field 10m W of the small hut are the poorly preserved remains of a sub-rectangular structure. It measures 3.5m N to S by 4.0m internally with two walls formed by the field boundary and a low tumbled wall on the E. It was formerly open to the S.
Two small clearance cairns lie within the same field.
From the field remains it is obvious that both the hut circles have been reused in the post medieval period, probably as outbuildings for Assycombe Farm (SX 68 SE 67). Another hut (SX 68 SE 91), to the S has also suffered the same fate.

Dartmoor National Park Authority, 1996, Condition Survey of Identified Archaeology within Woodland Areas 1996 (Un-published). SDV351820.

Fernworthy. Assycombe 1C/2C. Site visit 27th September 1996. Site marked with ten posts.

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

Hut circle shown on survey.

Fugro-BKS, 2013, Fernworthy Forest LiDAR survey (Cartographic). SDV351778.

Hut circle visible.

Newman, P., 2013, Fernworthy Forest Sites Survey (Un-published). SDV351708.

Newman, P., 2013, The Archaeology of Fernworthy Forest, Dartmoor, Devon, 22 (Report - Survey). SDV351784.

This is probably the third hut mentioned by Burnard in his notes of 1894. The hut is made up of thick rubble and earth banks. The interior floor level has been cleaned down by the excavators leeaving the stones of the inner wall in sharp profiled. A breach in the bank at the southern end is probably the entrance. The internal diameter is up to 5.8 metres and the walls are up to 3.6 metres thick and 1.0 metre high. Conifer stumps and roots have disturbed both the walls and the interior.

Ordnance Survey, 2014, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV355681.

Hut circle marked.

English Heritage, 2014, National Heritage List for England, 1017981 (National Heritage List for England). SDV355683.

[Part of] stone alignment, hut circle settlement, medieval long house and post-medieval farmstead at Assycombe.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV6203 - Archaeological Survey of Fernworthy Forest
• EDV6216 - Condition Surveys of Ancient Monuments on Forestry Commission Land
• EDV7389 - Fernworthy Forest condition survey 1996
• EDV7410 - Fernworthy Forest condition survey 1992
• EDV8409 - Dartmoor Royal Forest Project

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