Sixty stone hut circles forming part of an unenclosed settlement at Watern Oke

Reasons for Designation

Dartmoor is the largest expanse of open moorland in southern Britain and, because of exceptional conditions of preservation, it is also one of the most complete examples of an upland relict landscape in the whole country. The great wealth and diversity of archaeological remains provide direct evidence for human exploitation of the Moor from the early prehistoric period onwards. The well-preserved and often visible relationship between settlement sites, major land boundaries, trackways, ceremonial and funerary monuments as well as later industrial remains, gives significant insights into successive changes in the pattern of land use through time. Stone hut circles and hut settlements were the dwelling places of prehistoric farmers on Dartmoor. They mostly date from the Bronze Age, with the earliest examples on the Moor in this building tradition dating to about 1700 BC. The stone-based round houses consist of low walls or banks enclosing a circular floor area; remains of the turf or thatch roof are not preserved. The huts may occur singly or in small or large groups and may lie in the open or be enclosed by a bank of earth and stone. Although they are common on the Moor, their longevity and their relationship with other monument types provide important information on the diversity of social organisation and farming practices amongst prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period and a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of protection.

The unenclosed stone hut circle settlement at Watern Oke is one of the largest on Dartmoor and, despite partial excavation, important and informative archaeological structures, features and deposits still survive. Such evidence will provide a valuable insight into the economy of the site's inhabitants and the landscape in which they lived.

Details

This monument includes sixty stone hut circles, three cooking hearths and a post-medieval storage building situated immediately next to an area of clitter on a south facing slope overlooking the valley of the River Tavy and forming part of the large unenclosed stone hut circle settlement at Watern Oke. Of the sixty hut circles, fifty-one are circular in plan and the internal diameters of these huts vary from 1.5m to 6.6m. Nine huts are oval in plan, and these range between 2.4m to 6.4m long and 1.8m to 4.3m wide and stand between 0.5m and 1.1m high. The average height of all the walls is 0.79m. Thirty-four of the huts contain hearths, five have porches, two have internal partition walls, one has a bench and another an annexe. Twenty-nine of the hut circles are attached to boundary walls. The three cooking hearths consist of small stone-lined pits containing burnt stone and charcoal. The small storage building consists of a rectangular single roomed structure with corbelled walls and a stone lintel roof. The interior of the structure measures 1.2m long by 0.9m wide and the wall stands up to 1.3m high. This structure is not large enough to have provided shelter and it is therefore more likely to be a storage building or cache.

This monument forms the greater part of one of the largest unenclosed stone hut circle settlements on Dartmoor.

During June and July 1905 fifty-six of the stone hut circles were partially excavated by the Dartmoor Exploration Committee. Considerable quantities of charcoal were found together with cooking stones, pottery and flint artefacts. Of particular interest was the recovery of a Romano-British glass bead which suggests more than one period of occupation. Further stone hut circles probably survive in the area north of the monument, but these are not included in the scheduling because they are buried below peat and cannot therefore be identified.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

20354

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Anderson, I K, Devonshire Association Transactions in Hut Circle Settlement at Watern Oke, Vol. 38, (1906), 110
Anderson, I K, Devonshire Association Transactions in Hut Circle Settlement at Watern Oke, Vol. 38, (1906), 103
Anderson, I K, Devonshire Association Transactions in Hut Circle Settlement at Watern Oke, Vol. 38, (1906), 107
Anderson, I K, Devonshire Association Transactions in Hut Circle Settlement at Watern Oke, Vol. 38, (1906), 107
Anderson, I K, Devonshire Association Transactions in Hut Circle Settlement at Watern Oke, Vol. 38, (1906), 106-107
Anderson, I K, Devonshire Association Transactions in Hut Circle Settlement at Watern Oke, Vol. 38, (1906), 103
Anderson, I K, Devonshire Association Transactions in Hut Circle Settlement at Watern Oke, Vol. 38, (1906), 109
Anderson, I K, Devonshire Association Transactions in Hut Circle Settlement at Watern Oke, Vol. 38, (1906), 106
Anderson, I K, Devonshire Association Transactions in Hut Circle Settlement at Watern Oke, Vol. 38, (1906), 107-108
Anderson, I K, Devonshire Association Transactions in Hut Circle Settlement at Watern Oke, Vol. 38, (1906), 107
Anderson, I K, Devonshire Association Transactions in Hut Circle Settlement at Watern Oke, Vol. 38, (1906), 111
Anderson, I K, Devonshire Association Transactions in Hut Circle Settlement at Watern Oke, Vol. 38, (1906), 105
Anderson, I K, Devonshire Association Transactions in Hut Circle Settlement at Watern Oke, Vol. 38, (1906), 102-103
Anderson, I K, Devonshire Association Transactions in Hut Circle Settlement at Watern Oke, Vol. 38, (1906), 105-106
Anderson, I K, Devonshire Association Transactions in Hut Circle Settlement at Watern Oke, Vol. 38, (1906), 110
Anderson, I K, Devonshire Association Transactions in Hut Circle Settlement at Watern Oke, Vol. 38, (1906), 104-105
Anderson, I K, Devonshire Association Transactions in Hut Circle Settlement at Watern Oke, Vol. 38, (1906), 104
Anderson, I K, Devonshire Association Transactions in Hut Circle Settlement at Watern Oke, Vol. 38, (1906)
Anderson, I K, Devonshire Association Transactions in Hut Circle Settlement at Watern Oke, Vol. 38, (1906), 108
Anderson, I K, Devonshire Association Transactions in Hut Circle Settlement at Watern Oke, Vol. 38, (1906)

Other
Title: Ordnance Survey Map sheet SX 58 SE Source Date: 1988 Author: Publisher: Surveyor:
Attrill, N.J., SX58SE9 - Settlement at Watern Oke with amendments, (1979)
Gibson, A, Single Monument Class Description - Stone Hut Circles, (1987)
Gibson, A, Single Monument Class Description - Stone Hut Circles, (1987)
Gibson, A, Single Monument Class Description - Stone Hut Circles, (1987)
Gerrard, S., Unenclosed stone hut circle settlement at Watern Oke - SM 20354, (1991)

End of official list entry

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