Part of Eylesbarrow Reave

Overview

Heritage Category: Scheduled Monument

List Entry Number: 1011958

Date first listed: 09-Oct-1991

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

National Park: DARTMOOR

National Grid Reference: SX 57504 67176

Summary

Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.

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 provides 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. Elaborate complexes of fields and field boundaries are some of the major features of the Dartmoor landscape. They have important implications for studying Prehistoric land divisions and communal systems of land-holding, not just in this region but also nationally. Eylesbarrow Reave is a major watershed reave in the South Moor system.

History

Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.

Details

The Dartmoor reaves are part of a highly elaborate and extensive system of Prehistoric land division, introduced some time around 1700 BC. The reaves consist of simple linear stone and earth banks used to mark out discrete territories, some of which are tens of kilometres in area. The systems are defined by parallel, contour and watershed reaves, dividing the lower land from the grazing zones of the higher moor. Eylesbarrow Reave is a watershed reave which separates the watershed of the Plym from that of the Meavy, it extends from the Plym at Cadworthy Wood to the summit of Eylesbarrow, a distance of approximately 6km. Though the reave can be traced from end to end, there are now gaps along its length which result in its preservation in separate sections of unequal length. This section forms a dog-leg which runs through clitter across the lower north- west slope of Gutter Tor. It is 160m in length and is separated by a gap of c.70m from the section to the south-west, on the north slope of Ringmoor Down, and by a gap of nearly 600m to the north-east, as it crosses the valley of Sheepstor Brook and the northern end of Gutter Mire. It is traceable through the clitter as a low bank of earth and stone up to 0.4m in height and 2.5m in width, there are some larger upright stones marking its course through the heaviest clitter.

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: 10626

Legacy System: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Fleming, A, The Dartmoor Reaves, (1988)
Other
SX56NE-278, SX56NE-278, (1990)

Legal

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.