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Summary

Two adjoining hilltop enclosures,visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs, surrounded by a complex group of prehistoric settlement and stock enclosures.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1020162: Two prehistoric hilltop enclosures, a ditch system and four bowl barrows, 300m north of Barton Pines Inn
• SHINE: Two Iron Age sub-rectangular enclosures, Bronze Age or Early Iron enclosure and four Late Neoltihic or Early Bronze Age bowl barrows north east of Glazegate Cross

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX86SW/1
• Old SAM County Ref: 956
• Old SAM Ref: 33796

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• ENCLOSURE (Iron Age - 700 BC to 42 AD (Between))

Full description

National Monuments Record, SX8461 (Aerial Photograph). SDV343475.

Cambridge University, 1973, CUC/BOM, 56 (Aerial Photograph). SDV343474.

Other details: Also 54-5, 57-9, not in HER.

Department of Environment, 1975, Double Enclosure and Ditch System, Tenner's Bottom (Schedule Document). SDV343471.

Site visit 11th April 1975. Double enclosure, probably of Iron Age date, consisting of two sub-rectangular enclosures with a gap in the cross boundary on the west side. providing access from one to another. The main entrance appears to be in the centre of the southern boundary. The two enclosures are about 450 feet east to west and about 520 feet north to south. There is a small square enclosure and a bank running north to south in the southern of the two enclosures. To the south and east of the enclosures is an earthwork, presumably associated, which runs 880 feet east to west then turns to run another 200 feet north to south, and the remains of another, now probably mainly destroyed by the road. Earth works now completely invisible on the ground. In a ploughed field.

Griffith, F. M., 1987, Untitled Source (Personal Comment). SDV343473.

The eastern edge of both enclosures is apparently on the line of the hedge still shown on the Ordnance Survey 6 inch map of 1963, although it has been removed by the time of the Cambridge University Collection air photograph.

Robinson, R., 1987 - 2000, Devon Post-Reconnaissance Fieldwork Project (Un-published). SDV342165.

Site visits 16th November 1987 and 26th November 1987. Two joined irregular single ditched enclosures (linear feature to south). North enclosure lies partly on steep north slope above wood and partly on more level ground. The east and south-east sides of both enclosures show as a pronounced scarp, though this may be due to the fact that an old hedge line follows and respects their east sides. The west side of the north enclosure shows as faint bank. The south enclosure also lies on a north slope, uphill from the west enclosure though later than and appended to it. Other details: Plan.

Brown, S., 1998, Berry Pomeroy: Archaeological Survey for Presentation, 6 (Report - Survey). SDV341290.

Other details: Appendix 1.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2002, Two Prehistoric Hilltop Enclosures, a Ditch System and Four Bowl Barrows, 300 Metres North of Barton Pines Inn (Schedule Document). SDV343472.

This monument includes four Late Neolithic to Bronze Age bowl barrows, overlaid by a complex group of prehistoric settlement and stock enclosures surrounding two hilltop enclosures. It is located on a flat hilltop and gentle west-facing slope, with wide views in all directions. The monument survives as slight earthworks, some preserved in later hedgebanks, with many buried features visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs. The most prominent feature is a pair of large ovoid enclosures whose broad banks and surrounding ditches lie on the hilltop and run down the gradually steepening slope to the north. The northern of these enclosures is surrounded by a bank which measures 20 metres wide and survives up to 0.5 metres high, with an outer ditch 18 metres wide and 0.15 metres deep. It had three entrances, two of which survive as breaks in the outer ditches visible as cropmarks on the south and west sides, while the third survives within the wood at the northern edge of the scheduling. Here, a curving hornwork measures 10 metres wide, rising 1 metre from the interior and falling 2 metres into the steep valley to the north. The entrance is 20 metres wide, with the north rampart of the enclosure projecting to flank the hornwork and running along the contour to the west. Here it measures 10 metres wide, rising 0.4 metres from the interior and falling 2.5 metres to the valley slope below. A later hedgebank follows the rampart. The second enclosure abuts the first on its south side and has ramparts and ditches of similar size to the first. The ditch on the south side becomes a pair of narrower ditches, joined at their terminals on either side of an entrance, which measures 8 metres wide. A counterscarp bank on the west side measures 20 metres wide and survives 0.5 metres high with a narrow outer ditch. This bank projects beyond the north western corner of the enclosure to flank and protect the western entrance to the northern enclosure. An intermittent north-south aligned ditch 2 metres wide divides the southern enclosure, and at its northern end against the outer ditch a small enclosure 15 metres square is surrounded by two shallow concentric ditches 1.5 metres wide. On the west side of the site, the ground falls away at a shallow angle. Two concentric rampart lines here respect the profile of the west side of the two central enclosures. The first forms an intermediate rampart and lies between 40 metres and 70 metrs from the inner enclosures, surviving as an abrupt change in slope, followed by a later hedgebank. This falls 2 metres to an outer ditch 10 metres wide, 0.3 metres deep and 240 metres long, which cuts across the long stock enclosure on the south side of the site. The second has a bank 20 metres wide and up to 1 metres high with an outer ditch 8 metres wide. This continues south of the road, where its bank measures 10 metres wide and 0.2 metres high. Here it forms a funnel with the southern stock enclosure, before bending sharply away to the west. Between the two concentric ramparts, traces of another ditched enclosure are visible as a cropmark, abutting the intermediate rampart.

English Heritage, 2009, Heritage at Risk Register 2009: South West, 109 (Report - non-specific). SDV342694.

Extensive significant problems. Principal vulnerability arable ploughing.

English Heritage, 2010, Heritage at Risk Register 2010: South West, 102 (Report - non-specific). SDV344777.

English Heritage, 2011, Heritage at Risk Register 2011: South West, 106 (Report - non-specific). SDV355280.

Extensive significant problems. Declining. Principal vulnerability arable ploughing.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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