Courtyard house settlement 335m south of Nanjulian Farm

Reasons for Designation

The courtyard house is a building form developed in south west England in the Roman period during the second to fourth centuries AD. It was usually oval or curvilinear in shape, taking the form of a thick coursed rubble wall containing rooms and some storage chambers. A central area - the courtyard - was enclosed by this wall and the rooms and the main entrance opened into it. The courtyard is generally considered to have remained unroofed. Excavations of courtyard houses have revealed paved and cobbled floors, stone partitions, slab-lined and slab-covered drains, threshold and door pivot stones and slab-lined hearths, together with artefactual debris. Excavations have also shown that some courtyard houses developed from earlier phases of timber and/or stone built round houses on the same site. Courtyard houses may occur singly or in groups. The national distribution includes over 110 recorded courtyard houses, mostly on the Penwith peninsula at the western tip of Cornwall, with a single example on the Isles of Scilly. Courtyard houses are unique within the range of Romano-British settlement types, showing a highly localised adaptation to the windswept conditions of the far south west of England. They are important sources of information on the distinctive nature and pattern of settlement that developed during the Iron Age and Roman periods in south west England. Despite some limited partial excavation, the courtyard house settlement 335m south of Nanjulian Farm survives well and will contain archaeological and environmental evidence related to its construction, development, social organisation, function, trade, agricultural practices, longevity, domestic arrangements and overall landscape context.

Details

The monument includes a courtyard house settlement, situated on a coastal ridge overlooking Aire Point and Whitesand Bay. The settlement survives as three conjoined courtyard houses each with a courtyard, long room and round room with further round houses. All are defined by earth and stone banks and sections of drystone walling measuring up to 1.1m high. A fourth courtyard house lies to the east. A small unpublished excavation was conducted by FM Patchett in the 1940's and revealed Iron Age walling and two fragments of Iron Age pottery. The area was surveyed by the Cornwall Archaeological Unit in 1985.

Sources: HER:- PastScape Monument No:-420633

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

CO 318

Legacy System:

RSM - OCN

End of official list entry

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