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Summary

A large cairn measuring 21 by 17.5 metres wide with a maximum height of 1.7 metres. It has been badly mutilated by the construction of a two room building within it.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1002661: Western White Barrow

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX66NE36
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 441456
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX66NE/19
• Old SAM County Ref: 1010

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• CAIRN (Constructed, Bronze Age - 2200 BC (Between) to 701 BC (Between))

Full description

Crossing, W., 1888, Amid Devonia's Alps; or Wanderings and Adventures on Dartmoor, 34 (Monograph). SDV152959.

Baring Gould, S., 1900, A Book of Dartmoor, 211 (Monograph). SDV277387.

Crossing, W., 1912 (1965), Crossing's Guide to Dartmoor, 371 (Monograph). SDV320981.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1950/1977, SX66NE36 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV152873.

(04/05/1950) Cairn (diameter 19.0 metres, height 1.5 metres) with large hollow in centre.
(17/07/1977) Western White Barrow (name confirmed) is a large cairn, 21m by 17.5 m and a maximum of 1.7 m high, and lies on the summit of a broad level hill at 480 m above OD. It has been badly mutilated by the construction of a two room building, with fireplace, 11.5 m by 4.7 m overall, within its mass, and its original form is conjectural. Petre's Cross (SX 66 NE 37) has been set up upon the cairn.
O.S.10000 Survey revised.

Worth, R. H., 1967, Worth's Dartmoor, 164 (Monograph). SDV337618.

The barrow was 'partly remodelled' to provide a dwelling for workers at Redlake Peat Works.

Gill, C. (ed.), 1970, Dartmoor: a New Study, 279 (Monograph). SDV161800.

Grinsell, L. V., 1978, Dartmoor Barrows, 154 (Article in Serial). SDV273224.

Site visited on 23rd June 1976. Mutilated cairn. Diameter 20 metres, height 2 metres.

Robinson, R., 1978, South Brent Parish Checklist (Un-published). SDV137445.

Site visited on 5th May 1977. This cairn is composed of granite boulders with very little grassing over. The rebuilding as a peat cutters house is still clear with a fireplace at the north end, and two rooms.

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

Visible on RAF photograph.

Butler, J., 1993, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Four - The South-East, 159, Map 57 (Monograph). SDV337765.

Western White Barrow at SX65346548 with one of the four Petre's Crosses erected at the centre where it stood for nearly 300 years before being broken up by peat cutters in about 1847. These men built a large building of circa 10.0 metres by 3.5 metres across the centre of the cairn. Only the west end containing the chimney remains. The arms of the cross were used to provide a lintel for the chimney. The missing portions and socket base still presumably lurking amongst the stones of the cairn. The now limbless cross has been re-erected upside down with the tenon for the socket uppermost. Part of the cairn might be intact below the foundations of the house but little else can be expected to have survived undisturbed.

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

(21/02/1996) SX6536265485. As described in 1977. A 1:2500 survey is deposited in the archive.

English Heritage, 2005-2008, Prehistoric Survey Information (Cartographic). SDV345521.

Cairn shown on survey.

Ordnance Survey, 2021, MasterMap 2021 (Cartographic). SDV364015.

Cairn shown on modern mapping.

Historic England, 2021, National Heritage List for England, 1002661 (National Heritage List for England). SDV364016.

This monument includes a round cairn, wayside cross and shelter situated on the summit of a ridge known as Quickbeam Hill. See webpage for full details.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8082 - Survey of the Upper Erme Valley
• EDV8409 - Dartmoor Royal Forest Project

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