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Summary

Extensive area of medieval fields comprising strip lynchets arranged end to end in furlong blocks parallel to the contours or up and down the slope.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1021395: Deserted medieval settlement at Challacombe
• Scheduled Monument 1021394: Medieval strip fields, tinworks, prehistoric settlements, and a cairn on the lower western slopes of Hamel Down
• Scheduled Monument 1021340: Tinworks, field systems, settlements, warren, cairns and a stone alignment at Headland Warren
• Scheduled Monument 1021393: Medieval strip field system, tinworks, part of a prehistoric settlement, a cairn and reave on Challacombe Down

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX67NE4
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 442451
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX67NE/33
• Old SAM County Ref: 518

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• FIELD SYSTEM (Constructed, Early Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD (Between) to 1750 AD (Between))

Full description

Ordnance Survey, 1880-1899, First Edition Ordnance 25 inch map (Cartographic). SDV336179.

Strip fields shown on 19th century map.

Ordnance Survey, 1904 - 1906, Second Edition Ordnance Survey 25 inch Map (Cartographic). SDV325644.

strip fields shown on early 20th century map.

Shorter, A. H., 1938, Ancient Fields in Manaton Parish, 183-9 (Article in Serial). SDV289514.

Field system with a number of parallel terraces following the contours of the valley side, consisting of banks or heaps of stone behind which soil was placed to make level parts. The banks (of different sizes) were made of both small rocks and huge blocks of granite. Most terraces are arranged in interlocking sets, and pre-date tin gullies. The) balks, ie banks, of stone and earth 0.9 to 1.8 metres wide and 0.3 metres high running up and down slope. Field walls of two types, drystone, enclosing recently cultivated fields, and broken down, separating the 'sets' of terraces. Those around SX693820 probably post-date the terraces.

Royal Air Force, 1950, RAF/541/540, 3146-7 (Aerial Photograph). SDV285230.

Photograph taken on 1st June 1950.

Cambridge University, 1952, CUC/HR, 84-9 (Aerial Photograph). SDV343547.

Photograph taken on 23rd June 1952.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card, 1953, SX67NE4, SX67NE4 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV290730.

Visited on 27th April 1953.

Bowen, R. H., 1961, Ancient Fields, 41 (Monograph). SDV290733.

No trace of lynchets close to Challacombe farm, but traces of field banks to the south. A notable but rare exception to the normal type of medieval lynchet.

Anon, 1963, Strip Field at Challacombe (Article in Serial). SDV290731.

Failure to prevent ploughing of 10 acres of the strip lynchets reported.

Cambridge University, 1966, CUC/ANM, 38-42 (Aerial Photograph). SDV62341.

ANM 42 in parish file.

Gawne, E., 1970, Field Patterns in Widecombe Parish and the Forest of Dartmoor, 56, 58-9,62, Figure 4 (Article in Serial). SDV238056.

On the west (steeper) valley side the lynchets are large and divided by downhill strips. 18th century survey shows division into blocks of strips called "wares". Probably a small permanent infield and shifting cultivation of an outfield, the infield being enclosed by 1842.

Bonney, D. J., 1971, Former Farms and Fields at Challacombe, Manaton, 83-91 (Article in Monograph). SDV289513.

Mainly enclosed by 1840 but holdings still scattered.

Griffith, F. M., 1982, Strip Fields (Worksheet). SDV339543.

Visited on 27th December 1982. Lynchets show as very substantial earthworks. On upper part of west side of hill are vestiges of narrow strip fields running downhill across the contours parallel to the boundaries. Judging by the boundaries this upper area has been subjected to conventional cultivation.

Timms, S., 1983, Notes on Lecture given by H. S. A. Fox (Personal Comment). SDV290309.

Courtenay Estate map of the 18th century, which is preserved in Powderham Castle, with a copy in the Devon Record Office, shows open field system in detail.

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

Clearly visible on aerial photograph.

Griffith, F. M., 1985, DAP/EM, 7a-11a (Aerial Photograph). SDV274678.

Photograph taken on 17th March 1985.

Robinson, R., 1986, List of Field Monument Warden Visits 1986 (Un-published). SDV345664.

Visited on 6th March 1986 and 6th August 1986.

Griffith, F., 1988, Devon's Past. An Aerial View, 97 (Monograph). SDV64198.

Area of medieval strip fields farmed from the hamlet of Challacombe.

Butler, J., 1991, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Two - The North, 16-8, Map 24, Figure 24.1 (Monograph). SDV219155.

Extensive field system on Challacombe Down between 'Redwater Brook' and the 'West Webburn' which developed from at least the 13th century. Some field boundaries are shown between prehistoric Settlements 'A' and 'B' to the east of the 'plantation' at 'Challacombe Down West'.

Dartmoor National Park Authority, 1991, Strip Fields at Challacombe (SMR record). SDV364758.

30th October 1991. A management agreement has been drawn up between Dartmoor National Park Authority and the farmer.

Ordnance Survey, 2022, Mastermap 2022 (Cartographic). SDV364674.

Strip field shown on modern mapping.

Historic England, 2022, National Heritage List for England, 1021393 (National Heritage List for England). SDV364675.

The monument includes a medieval field system, several tinworks, part of a prehistoric stone hut circle settlement, a cairn and length of reave on Challacombe Down. The medieval field system survives as a series of narrow rectangular fields denoted by substantial stone and earth banks. These mostly lie parallel with the contours, but towards the southern and north western edges, the field boundaries lie across the contour. The fields on the steeper slopes are defined by the most substantial boundaries known as lynchets. The fields were built during the medieval period by the farmers at the nearby hamlet of Challacombe. Each field was farmed separately and the individual farmers held fields throughout the area. Traces of ridge and furrow within many of the fields indicates that they were cultivated, although in others the large amounts of surface stone suggests that they could only ever have been used for grazing. An open-field system of terraced strip lynchets arranged in furlong blocks, some now destroyed by enclosure. Length of strips 119 to 274 etres, treads 7.3 to 27.4 metres wide. On west valley side lynchets are overlain in part by a "narrow rig" system possibly of late 18th/early 19th century date; the furlongs are here divided by low grassy banks. Survey of 1787 suggests open field at Challacombe of intermixed holdings with some enclosures.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8658 - Challacombe, Duchy Farms Survey
• EDV6476 - Survey of the Redwater wheel pit and buddles
• EDV7139 - Headland Warren and the Birch Tor and Vitifer Mines Survey (Ref: A1/20/2001, A1/34/2002)
• EDV7390 - Archaeological condition survey in Soussons Woods
• EDV7402 - Archaeological condition survey in Soussons Woods
• EDV7421 - Archaeological condition survey in Soussons Woods
• EDV7431 - Woodland Survey (1989-90) at Bellever, Soussons and other woodland parcels
• EDV8175 - Test pitting at Challacombe
• EDV8479 - Excavation of hut circle, Challacombe

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