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Summary

The remains of a rectangular peat cutter's hut measuring 2.7 metres by 1.8 metres internally with an entrance 1 metre wide in the eastern wall.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX68NW32
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 443748
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX68NW/53

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• HUT (Constructed, Early Medieval to Early 20th Century - 1066 AD (Between) to 1901 AD (Between))

Full description

Le Messurier, B., 1975, Field visit (Worksheet). SDV267825.

(12/09/1975) Beside datum pole. Walls banked north and south sides, with some stone fallen in. Good wall on north and west sides. Floor of stone and earth. Tin streaming in valley bottom to east, but a surprising site for a hut. A large stone which may have been an upright or lintel is lying askew inside. Internal measurements 1.5m x 2.4m.

Le Messurier, B., 1979, Post-Prehistoric Structures of Central North Dartmoor. A Field Survey, 64 (Article in Serial). SDV269283.

SX 60708680. Rectangular hut with some good walling. Internal measurements 1.5m by 2.4m. A possible lintel stone 1.5m long is lying inside. Peat cutting and tin streaming nearby.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1979, SX68NW32, photograph (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV267827.

(05/09/1979) At SX60708667 is a hut near the summit of a ridge and with an area of peat cutting with which it is probably associated, since the nearest tin working is some 250m distant in the valley bottom. It measures 2.7m by 1.8m internally with coursed rubble walling 0.7m thick and up to 0.9m high. The lintel type stone lies across the interior but the position of the entrance is uncertain. Surveyed at 1:10 000 on MSD.
See ground photographs.

Butler, J., 1991, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Two - The North, 214, Map 41, Site 'BH1' (Monograph). SDV219155.

'BH1' is a small building of 2.6 metres by 1.3 metres on the summit of the ridge between the two rivers and is likely to have been the home of peat cutters or shepherds. The bottle-shaped building has a narrow passage leading to a corbelled chamber. Most of the roofing slabs have collapsed and the lintel from over the doorway lies at the entrance.

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

(08/09/1993) SX 60708668. On the gently sloping upper western slopes of the Taw valley stands a small, ruined, rectangular stone-built structure. The internal dimensions are 2.3m west to east by 1.6m. The western half of the structure consists of a stone revetment cut into the hillslope and the eastern end is an upstanding wall. Walls remain to a maximum height of 0.8m. The entrance survives as an opening 1m wide in the eastern wall. A large slab of granite 1.4m long by 0.4m blocks the entrance and a further four large slabs lie on the floor of the building. There is no evidence of a fireplace or any other internal features.
Inferential evidence that this hut was probably a shelter used by peat cutters working in the immediate area comes from the many nearby linear peat cutting plots.

Probert, S. A. J. + Newman, P., 2003-2004, Measured survey North Dartmoor Military Range Okehampton Range: Monument Baseline Condition Survey, S. Probert (Report - Survey). SDV350801.

(24/10/2004) This feature remains as described in 1993.

English Heritage, 2005, Survey Information (miscellaneous date) (Report - Survey). SDV345855.

Small recatngular building shown on survey.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8409 - Dartmoor Royal Forest Project
• EDV8679 - Okehampton Range: Management Survey
• EDV8291 - Okehampton Range: Monument Baseline Condition Survey
• EDV8695 - Survey of Okehampton North Dartmoor Military Range

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