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.
The enclosure with hut circles and rectangular pens, south of Bala Brook is
a well preserved example of its kind and provides important evidence of how
early farming and stock-rearing communities lived on the Moor.
Details
Low stone walls or banks enclosing a circular floor area form the remains of
timber and turf or thatch-roofed dwellings occupied by farmers of the
prehistoric period. They may occur singly or in larger groups and were
sometimes built within a surrounding boundary bank or enclosure. On Dartmoor,
the long tradition of building stone-based round houses can be traced back to
the second millennium BC, probably from about 1700 BC. This D-shaped
enclosure, south of Bala Brook and downstream of its confluence with Red
Brook, is approximately 0.75ha in area with Bala Brook forming the flat side,
which is not enclosed. It has a massive wall over 3m in width and over 1m in
height. The wall's make up includes very large granite boulders, and it has
an entrance in its southern side. Attached to the southern wall within the
enclosure are five rectangular pens roughly 9.5m by 10m in width and length.
Their walls have been rebuilt in places to a height of over a metre, with
entrances facing into the enclosure. There are also at least seven hut
circles, three cut off from the rest by the Water Board intake fence, they are
up to 10m in diameter and their walls are up to 0.5m in height. Some of them
retain evidence of entrances on their south-eastern sides.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
Legacy System number:
10578
Legacy System:
RSM
Sources
Other
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 Culture, Media and Sport.
End of official list entry
