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Summary

Prehistoric cairn to the west of West Vitifer Mine of 5.5 metres diameter by 0.3 metres high excavated in 1897 and found to be covering a stone cist containing a decorated urn with fragments of charcoal. Worth (1948) refers to a possible cist in the general region of SX 675 826, but this feature has not been identified or confirmed since.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1020040: Cairn on Chagford Common 320m west of West Vitifer Mine

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX68SE7
• National Monuments Record: SX68SE8
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 443785
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 443786
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX68SE/50
• Old SAM County Ref: 973
• Old SAM Ref: 28747

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• ROUND CAIRN (Constructed, Early Neolithic to Late Bronze Age - 4000 BC to 701 BC)
• (Former Type) CIST? (Bronze Age - 2200 BC to 701 BC)

Full description

Worth, R. H., 1897, 16th Report of the Barrow Committee, 67-71 (Article in Serial). SDV356961.

In 1897 an unopened barrow was found on Chagford Common on north side of trackway to Kings Oven, about 366 metres from the stone row. No stone circle. A small kistvaen full of earth with fragments of charcoal and a small urn on its side in the south-east corner of the kist, 102 mm above kist floor and placed as found set close into the angle. Pottery of light chocolate brown, handmade, ornamentation with impressions forming U-shaped dots, arranged in parallel and diagonal lines. Top of rim similarly decorated. No trace of bone.

Worth, R. H., 1902, 21st Report of the Barrow Committee, 110-136 (Article in Serial). SDV20971.

Site visited in July 1902. Excavations in 1897 uncovered a central stone cist filled with soil containing small fragments of charcoal. In one corner of the cist was a beaker of late type. There were no signs of a burial.

Victoria County History, 1906, The Victoria History of the County of Devon, 360 (Article in Serial). SDV238214.

Plan and section drawings.

Victoria County History, 1906, The Victoria History of the County of Devon, 360 (Article in Serial). SDV238214.

Brailsford, J. W., 1938, Bronze Age Stone Monuments of Dartmoor, 450 (Article in Serial). SDV304210.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1952, SX68SE8, 26 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV256969.

'There is a cist somewhere about SX 675826' (R. H. Worth, OS correspondence 09/12/1948).
(05/07/1952) No trace of this cist could be found. A beaker described as 'from a cist near the Warren House Inn' is reported as having been 'rediscovered' and exhibited again at Plymouth Museum. This may be from this site. It is a bell beaker with horizontal bands of impressed comb pattern (CBA Archaeological Review 1967).

Worth, R. H., 1953, Dartmoor, 192-3 (Monograph). SDV231148.

A small round barrow 15 feet diameter by 1.5 feet high, situated 400 yards north east of the northern end of the stone row on Chagford Common (SX 68 SE 10). Excavations by R H Worth and S Baring-Gould in 1897 uncovered a central stone cist (3'6" x 2'3" and 2' deep) filled with soil containing small fragments of charcoal. In one corner of the cist was a beaker of late type laid on its side. There were no signs of a burial.

Grinsell, L. V., 1978, Dartmoor Barrows, 134, Chagford 4 (Article in Serial). SDV273224.

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

Visible on aerial photograph and recorded.

Turner, J. R., 1990, Ring Cairns, Stone Circles and Related Monuments on Dartmoor, 83 (Article in Serial). SDV229817.

Indication of a stone ring/ring cairn under cairn.

Gerrard, S., 1990-2002, Monument Protection Programme. Archaeological Item Dataset., MPP 152170 (Report - Survey). SDV277946.

Site visited on 16th March 1999. Cairn on Chagford Common standing 320 metres west of West Vitifer Mine.

Butler, J., 1991, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Two - The North, 31-2, 238, Map 25 (Monograph). SDV219155.

West Vitifer Cairn at SX67578279 of 5.5 metres diameter bu 0.3 metres high with a cist.. An insignificant sited just off the ridge to the north of the stone row was discovered and excavated in 1897. It covered a cist surrounded by a ring of slabs which contained a 'barbed wire' beaker dating from around 2000 BC. No trace of a cremation remained. A few of the stones of the cairn remain including one edge of the cist near the centre.

Passmore, A. J., 1997, Boveycombehedd, Chagford, Devon: an archaeological investigation of a Diachronic landscape, Figure 1 (Post-Graduate Thesis). SDV360382.

Small circular feature shown on Figure 1.

Newman, P., 2002, Headland Warren and the Birch Tor and Vitifer Mines, S. Probert (Report - Survey). SDV363213.

(07/11/2002) [443785 / SX68SE7] No detail recorded from this visit in NRHE record.
[443786 / SX68SE8] SX 675 826: There is a cist somewhere about here (Worth, R. H., 09/12/1948).
(07/11/2002) Possible location of a Bronze Age cist, although when subject to field investigation in November 2002 the site was not found.

Ordnance Survey, 2017, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV359962.

Depicted on the modern mapping.

Historic England, 2017, National Heritage List for England, 1020040 (National Heritage List for England). SDV359963.

The monument includes a round cairn situated on a gentle north east facing slope on Hurston Ridge overlooking the valley of the North Walla Brook.
The cairn measures 6m in diameter, stands up to 0.7m high and was partially excavated in 1897 by the Barrow Committee of the Devonshire Association. This work revealed a ring of slabs surrounding a cist which had not been previously examined. In the cist there was a complete Bronze Age beaker together with charcoal but no trace of a burial.
Barrow (diameter 4.6 metres, height 460 millimetres), kist (length 1 metre, width (maximum 760 millimetres, min 600 millimetres).

Historic England, 2021-2022, NRHE to HER website, Accessed 11/04/2022 (Website). SDV364039.

[443785 / SX68SE7]
A Bronze Age round cairn on Chagford Common, 320 metres west of West Vitifer Mine. The cairn was partially excavated in 1897 by the Barrow Committee of the Devonshire Association. This working revealed a ring of slabs surrounding a cist which had not been previously examined. In the cist there was a complete Bronze Age beaker together with charcoal but no trace of a burial.
[443786 / SX68SE8]
Possible location of a Bronze Age cist, although when subject to field investigation in November 2002 the site was not found.
Pastscape comment April 2012 "cist of 443786 is possibly the same as the one in the mound of 443785" (Mr Bill Radcliffe communication by email 02-APR-2012).

National Monument Record, Unknown, SX6782, 1 (Aerial Photograph). SDV277395.

Not visible on aerial photograph.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds

• FDV6641 - BEAKER (Bronze Age - 2200 BC to 701 BC)

Associated Events

• EDV7505 - Boveycombehedd, Chagford: An Archaeological Investigation of a Diachronic Landscape
• EDV8519 - Cairn investigated, Chagford Common
• EDV7139 - Headland Warren and the Birch Tor and Vitifer Mines Survey (Ref: A1/20/2001, A1/34/2002)

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