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Summary

Site of Leapra Brook three Medieval longhouses with associated enclosures to the south-west of Moor Gate Farm. Nationally Important site.

Location

Protected Status

• SHINE: Three Medieval longhouses with associated enclosures to the south-west of Moor Gate Farm

Other References/Statuses

• Dartmoor Non-designated Heritage Asset (Historical): NI site
• National Monuments Record: SX78SW48
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 445688
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX78SW/82
• Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division: SX78SW48

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• DESERTED SETTLEMENT (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD (Between))

Full description

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, SX78SW48 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV279912.

Royal Air Force, 13/04/1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1995, 3356-7 (Aerial Photograph). SDV224714.

The remains of the three buildings visible at SX 70128268.

Royal Air Force, 1961, 58/4424, F44.116 (Aerial Photograph). SDV280247.

Linehan, C. D., 1966, Deserted Sites and Rabbit-Warrens on Dartmoor, Devon, 116 (Article in Serial). SDV307246.

Deserted Medieval settlement consisting of three buildings and enclosures. Other details: Figure 48, table 2.

Haynes, R. G., 1966-1969, Ruined Sites on Dartmoor, 59 (Un-published). SDV150434.

Site visited on 1st June 1967. Two cross passage longhouses and a single outbuilding in enclosures at the foot of the eastern slope of Shapley Tor. Northern longhouse measures 11.6 metres by 4.0 metres. The southern longhouse measures 14.6 metres by 4.3 metres and its outbuilding, 8.2 metres by 2.4 metres.

National Monuments Record, 1979, SF 1508, 899 (Aerial Photograph). SDV345478.

Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, 1985, SX78SW (Cartographic). SDV346261.

Visible on aerial photograph.

Butler, J., 1991, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume One - The East, 163 (Monograph). SDV299725.

Leapra Brook longhouses nestle close together at the base of the hill facing Moor Gate Farm above one of the many springs which feed the River Bovey. In summer bracken obscures the walls and stones continue to tumble down the slope. The houses are built parallell 5 and 12 metres apart orientated down the hillside with a yard or croft between them formed by the walls connecting their ends. The southern longhouse is smaller than the others at 9 metres by 3 metres and has a single entrance about half way along one side. The central house at 14.8 metres by 3.7 metres is the largest but ruinous and even the entrances are uncertain though the opposing gaps in the long walls may be original. A pair of earthfast slabs may be all that remains of an interior cross wall. The northern longhouse at 12.3 metres by 3.5 metres is better preseved with two entrances and the tumbled stones of a cross wall within. A complicated fan of tinners' gullies intersect on the hillside immediately to the south cutting through some of the ancient field walls and thus post dating them. Further uphill and 200 metres to the north-west a rectangualr levelled platform 20 metres by 5 metres on the downhill side of a field wall marks the site of a more recent building. Other details: Map 23, Site 6.

Gerrard, S., 2004, List of Sites Remaining to be Considered for Designation on Dartmoor (Un-published). SDV345444.

Leapra longhouse was considered for designation as a Scheduled Ancient Monument in 2004. Other details: Site91.

Gerrard, S., 2006, Dartmoor Nationally Important Sites (Cartographic). SDV345607.

Outline shown.

GeoInformation Group Ltd, 2010, 1:625 2010 Colour (12.5cm resolution) (Aerial Photograph). SDV346026.

Remains of the three longhouses clear on the aerial photograph. Map object ly parbased on this Source.

National Monuments Record, 2011, 445688 (National Monuments Record Database). SDV346610.

Deserted Medieval site.

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

Leapra Brook longhouses.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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