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Summary

Irregularly shaped earthworks of two pits and a bank, interpreted as post-medieval or 19th century quarries, are visible on visualisations derived from lidar data captured in 2011 and 2016. Additional evidence of quarrying is also possibly visible across the western extent of an Iron Age hillfort.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses: none recorded

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• QUARRY (Post Medieval to XIX - 1540 AD to 1880 AD (Between))

Full description

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

Site of 'Old Quarry' on north side of 'Lifton Wood' marked on 1880s-1890s 25 inch Ordnance Survey map.

Environment Agency, 2000-2019, LiDAR DTM data (1m resolution) EA: Tamar Aerial Survey project area, LIDAR Environment Agency LAST RETURN 24-NOV-2016 (Cartographic). SDV363954.

Irregularly shaped pits and a bank are visible as earthworks.

Environment Agency, 2011, LIDAR data JPEG images (2 metre resolution) (Cartographic). SDV348634.

An irregularly shaped pit is visible.

Hegarty, C., 2015, Comments arising from the transcription of earthworks at Lifton Wood from Lidar data (Interpretation). SDV358492.

An irregularly shaped former quarry of probable post-medieval to 19th century date was visible at Lifton Woods as an earthwork pit on images derived from lidar data. The pit corresponds with the Old Quarry depicted on the 1880s-1890s 25 inch Ordnance Survey first edition map but is slightly larger in size that that shown. A linear hollow extends to the south-east from the quarry, towards the hillfort on the hill summit, and might be a trackway associated with the quarry.

Gent, T. + Manning, P., 2016, Lifton Wood and the Development of the Surrounding Area. (Report - Assessment). SDV359657.

This desk-based assessment was carried out between August 2015 and February 2016 to assist in the interpretation of a recently rediscovered hilltop enclosure and other features in Lifton Wood, Lifton, Devon.

In 1793 Swete refers to a slate quarry to the west of Lifton Bridge, and this is depicted on the estate map of 1807 as a feature immediately adjacent to the wood. A sale notice for Lifton Park estate in 1842 includes 'valuable Quarries of Lime and Stone, and mines of Manganese'. In 1850, William White wrote that the parish contained limestone, lead ore, manganese etc. and that an argentiferous (silver) lead mine had recently been opened up at Gatherleigh. The OS map of 1888 shows four quarries within Lifton Wood (Fig. 7) and a further small quarry is depicted on the OS map of 1907.

Newman, P., 2016, Lifton Wood Hilltop Enclosure, Devon (Report - Survey). SDV359658.

An earthwork survey was commissioned by Bill Horner, Devon County Archaeologist, following encouraging results from a LiDAR transcription resulting in the discovery of an Iron Age Hilltop enclosure.

Attempts to exploit the shillet available in Lifton Wood, have resulted in several areas of quarry remains, four of which were depicted on the OS 25-inch 1st edition map of 1884. The largest of these is at the far eastern end of the hill, not far from Lifton Bridge, but on the hilltop, only relatively small-scale diggings are evident, though causing much disturbance to the land surface. A quarry pit with exposed rock faces exists 70 metres northwest of the hilltop enclosure. Although approximately 0.04ha in extent and 3.7 metres deep there is no sign of a spoil heap on the downslope side of this quarry, suggesting all stone that was removed was transported away. There is an additional large area of disturbed ground upslope of the quarry, covering much of the space between it and the enclosure. These remains consist of a combination of shallow cuttings and dumping and may represent attempts to exploit shillet very near the surface. Such material was useful as an aggregate for metalling roads and field gateways. Small quarries in wooded locations are infrequently recorded on earlier maps, such as the Tithe, so even an approximate date for these remains eludes us, although they are clearly later than the field boundaries, which have been slighted by the quarry digging. It was abandoned before 1884 when it was referred to as ‘Old Quarry’ on the OS 25-inch 1st edition map.

Hegarty, C., Houghton, E., Knight, S. and Sims, R., 2020-2021, Tamar/Lidar; A Single Source Approach to Landscape Survey and Socially Distanced Community Archaeology Area 2 (Culture Recovery Fund project) (Interpretation). SDV364011.

Irregularly shaped earthworks of two pits, between 15-33 metres long, either side of a bank, circa 4 metres wide, are visible on visualisations derived from lidar data captured in 2016. The western of the two pits corresponds with an earthwork labelled as ‘Old Quarry’ on the late 19th century First Edition Ordnance Survey map. They are therefore interpreted as post-medieval or 19th century quarries, with associated spoil heap, that had been abandoned by the late 19th century. Earthworks of additional quarries are also possibly visible to the immediate east and south-east of these pits, where they appear to truncate earthworks associated with an Iron Age hillfort (MDV108533). These possible quarries have been included within the monument polygon for this record, but the transcriptions of these features have been appended to the record for the hillfort.

Horner, B., 27.04/2015, Old Quarry, Lifton Wood (Ground Photograph). SDV358229.

Ground shot of quarry area, Lifton Wood.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV6998 - EarthWork Survey, Lifton Wood Hilltop Enclosure
• EDV6997 - Desk-Based Assessment of a Hilltop Enclosure in Lifton Wood and the Development of the Surrounding Area. (Ref: 1155)
• EDV8356 - Tamar/Lidar; A Single Source Approach to Landscape Survey and Socially Distanced Community Archaeology Area 2 (Culture Recovery Fund) (Ref: ACD2424)

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