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Summary

An enclosure with 5 hut circles within it was located at SX 72238072. Two hut circles were found at SX 72228077 and three more at SX72228057. The enclosure wall is 1.5m wide and 0.4m high, without an obvious entrance. Fragmentary walls inside may be the remains of other hut circles. All the hut circles were double-walled except those at SX72228057. They average 0.5m in diameter with walls 1.5m wide and 0.3m high. All were too ruinous for their entrances to be located (OS, 19/03/1953).

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1002557: Hut circles on Heatree Down

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX78SW16 SX 78 SW 16
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 445642
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX78SW/5
• Old SAM County Ref: 611
• Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division: SX78SW16

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• ENCLOSED HUT CIRCLE SETTLEMENT (Bronze Age - 2200 BC to 701 BC (Between))

Full description

Untitled Source (Aerial Photograph). SDV302952.

Vis=-/10/1966(ancient monuments) there are at least 12 huts, some of them within an enclosing wall. Constructed of boulders which survive up to 2 courses or slabs on edge. Very overgrown with grass and bracken.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV302954.

Griffiths, d. /plan showing enclosures, banks, walls and hut circles/(1991). Vis=sketch plan showing some additional hut circles in the woods next to heatree down. Sketch plot only shown on plan. Now in parish file (griffiths).

Royal Air Force, 13/04/1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1995, 4353 (Aerial Photograph). SDV224714.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1953, SX78SW16 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV302951.

(19/03/1953) 10 Bronze Age hut circles and enclosure. Three groups described, lettered 'a', 'b' and 'c'.
'A' a group of two hut circle centred at SX 7222 8077. Diameters of 5.3m with walls 1.5m wide and 0.3m high. In fair condition and may have entrances in the east.
'B' a group of five huts within an enclosure centred at SX 7223 8072. The enclosure and two of the huts have not previously been published. Diameters vary from 4.0m to 6.0m, heights of the walls from 0.2 - 0.4m and their condition from fair to poor. No entrances are traceable and walls are consistently 1.5m thick. The enclosure wall averages 1.5m wide, 0.4m high. No definite trace of an entrance. Further fragmentary remains within the enclosure that may represent further huts.
'C' a group of three huts centred at SX 7222 8057. Diameters of 4.0 - 5.0m, walls 1.0m thick. No traceable entrances and they are in very poor condition.
The site lies on gentle western slopes of a hill, and there is no trace of any associated field system. All huts are double-walled except c which are probably single.

Fox, A., 1973, South West England 3,500BC - AD600 (Revised Edition), 103 (Monograph). SDV16216.

At Heatree Down, Manaton, some of the stone huts were preceded by slighter constructions using many small stakes and wattle work.

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

Six hut circles are visible (two of them attached to each other by a bank) on the 1947 aerial photograph, within a sub-circular enclosure, the western portion of which appears to be lost under a modern trackway and tree cover. All six hut circles fall within group 'b' above. In addition there is one hut circle at SX 7222 8056 which falls within group 'c' (above) (group 'c' is centred on SX 7222 8057). Neither of the two hut circles in group 'a' (which is centred at SX 7222 8077) is visible on the 1947 photographs.

Quinnell, H., 1991, The late Mrs E. M. Minter's excavation of hut circles at Heatree, Manaton in 1968, 1-24 (Article in Serial). SDV305467.

Discussion of Mrs Minter's 1968 excavation. Hut circles on heatree down. Three groups of hut circles. Group a: a group of two hut circles in fair condition; may have entrances to east. Group b: a group of five hut circles within an enclosure. No entrances are traceable in huts or enclosure. Within the enclosure are further fragmentary remains of walls which may have formed hut circles. Group c: a group of three hut circles. No entrances traceable, and huts in poor condition.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8595 - Excavation at Heatree

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