Reasons for Designation
Bodmin Moor, the largest of the Cornish granite uplands, has long been
recognised to have exceptional preservation of archaeological remains. The
Moor has been the subject of detailed archaeological survey and is one of the
best recorded upland landscapes in England. The extensive relict landscapes of
prehistoric, medieval and post-medieval date provide direct evidence for human
exploitation of the Moor from the earliest prehistoric period onwards. The
well-preserved and often visible relationship between settlement sites, field
systems, ceremonial and funerary monuments as well as later industrial remains
provides significant insights into successive changes in the pattern of land
use through time.
The extensive survival of archaeological remains contained within prehistoric
to post-medieval remains on the south east slopes of Smallacoombe Downs and
north eastern Siblyback Moor provides excellent evidence for the sequence of
land use over about four millenia of human activity, with important
implications relating to the social, economic and wider landscape organisation
of the human communities involved. The remains from each phase in that
sequence survive sufficiently clearly and on a scale large enough to display
the developing pattern of economic organisation of this remote upland area.
The medieval and post-medieval settlement remains also show clearly their
layout and typify the development of many settlements in upland valleys. The
extensive reuse and adoption of earlier features within the prehistoric and
later periods not only permits analysis of the overall sequence but it also
illustrates well the complex mix of continuity and innovation that underlies
the physical pattern of land use in each phase. In their wider context, the
features in this scheduling have additional importance in providing an
unusually complete view of the prehistoric and later land use sequence across
a hillslope and down to a valley floor, supplementing a similar profile of
survival beyond this scheduling on the north eastern flank of the downs;
overall this considerably complements our understanding of the range of
broadly contemporary monuments in the area whose surviving focus tends to lie
outside the valleys. Although the scheduling's features show some disturbance
from forestry operations, these have only affected limited areas and in most
of those. Subsequent aerial photographic work, both before and during the
modern forestry, also considerably complements our knowledge of the extensive
field remains in this scheduling.
Details
The monument includes successive prehistoric to post-medieval field systems,
boundaries and settlements at Smallacoombe Parks on the south east of
Smallacoombe Downs on south east Bodmin Moor. The field systems and boundaries
extend south east onto Siblyback Moor. The scheduling includes parts of a 19th
century railway trackbed that pass across earlier features. The scheduling is
divided into two areas of protection.
In the west of Smallacoombe Parks, on the Downs' south flank, a large block of
prehistoric plots rises north west upslope for up to 195m. Much of its core is
overlain by a block of medieval fields with hedgebanks that are constructed of
stone robbed from earlier walls nearby, but to the north east, prehistoric
walls subdivide the earlier block into plots elongated downslope, 8m-22m wide
by 17m-70m long, the smallest plots on the lower slope. A similar pattern
reappears south west of the medieval block but with longer and broader
plots.
North east of this prehistoric block, two large rectangular plots extend to a
prehistoric linear boundary that runs SSE across a valley and onto the north
east of Siblyback Moor, continuing beyond this scheduling and modified in
places as a medieval wall and post-medieval hedgebank. Its north end joins the
lower end of a second prehistoric boundary rising WNW up the Down's east slope
for 210m, its course interrupted by boulders on the upper slope; above this it
meets another prehistoric boundary running SSE from Smallacoombe Tor to the
prehistoric fields on the downs' southern flank. At the foot of the linear
boundary down the eastern slope is a hut circle with a 4.5m diameter levelled
interior; much of its wall stone was robbed for refurbishment of the linear
boundary which was extended over the hut circle's south west edge.
Below the hut circle, prehistoric field remains extend over the downs' lower
eastern slope for 350m NNW-SSE, including pronounced steps along the contour
called lynchets, some over 2m high, resulting from soil movement down the
gradient due to early cultivation. The lynchets often curve and some are faced
by large slabs or boulders. They indicate a field system laid out along the
contour, with downslope plots about 40m-65m wide, and surviving downslope
walls give a plot length about 55m-70m. Finer lynchetted subdivision occurs in
the south east, immediately north of a medieval settlement.
The prehistoric field system re-appears on Siblyback Moor, along 295m of its
north east slopes. At the south east, the slope is divided into narrow strips
by parallel downslope walls linking a midslope wall and a lynchet at the foot
of the slope. To the north west, modern forestry truncates midslope walling
though this does appear on early aerial photographs. On the lower north west
slope, a lynchet appears, with less regularly spaced downslope walls below
it.
The main medieval settlement focus is at the foot of the eastern slope, near
the small valley between Smallacoombe Downs and Siblyback Moor. It has two
elongated rectangular houses, known as long houses, 30m apart on a NNW-SSE
axis, with rubble walls about 0.5m high, but to 1.5m high in places. Between
the houses is a small ancillary building; a larger building 15m north of the
northern long house is considered to be a barn. The area around the long
houses is finely divided into yards and garden plots, partly reusing
prehistoric lynchets supplemented by medieval hedgebanks. This close area is
defined to the west and south by a massive bank and ditch, reusing a
prehistoric lynchet surmounted by an assymetrical medieval hedgebank called a
corn-ditch.
Another massive bank defines a small yard south of the southern long house.
The settlement lies west of a track that extends SSE, round the east of
Siblyback Moor, and continues beyond this scheduling. Further early walling
east of the track is modified by a small, post-medieval farm described below.
Beyond the settlement, hedgebanks and walls show medieval reuse of the east
slope prehistoric field system, rising to just below the hut circle at the
foot of the linear boundary where a medieval field corner includes a small
enclosure with an outbuilding at one end. The upper limit of northern plots on
the slope is defined by a medieval bank and outer ditch.
From about 100m west of this east slope field system, the block of four
medieval fields in the prehistoric field system on the west of Smallacoombe
Parks is defined by hedgebanks that partly reuse wavering prehistoric wall
lines. Its large, high-level plots, separate from the field system around the
settlement, reveal it as an outfield, whose less intensive use supplemented
the settlement's output. From about 50m south west along the slope, a second,
probably later, outfield has a larger, more regular plan. It occupies most of
the slope, up to 320m ENE-WSW by 300m north west-south east, with almost
parallel north east and south west sides, and upper sides rising to a broad
point. Its lower edge and upper eastern side are open but elsewhere it is
bounded by a ditch and an intermittent inner bank; down the south west side,
the ditch becomes enlarged to supply water for valley-floor tin extraction.
Early aerial photographs show the outfield subdivided into north east-south
west strips by parallel walls descending from an upper slope wall below the
outfield's upper end. These internal divisions, beyond this scheduling, have
not survived modern forestry.
Further medieval remains occur 150m north of the long house settlement: below
a tall lynchet in a lower slope plot are three rectangular structures; the
southern two are small dwellings, 32m apart NNW-SSE, with inner partitions;
the northern is a yard, 8.5m by 5m, with a small structure at its upslope end.
Their situation in a medieval plot near rich valley-floor tin deposits
suggests a connection with medieval tin extraction. Medieval and later tin
extraction produced a channel tapered over 200m west along the valley floor
between Smallacoombe Downs and Siblyback Moor. This is a result of tinners'
removal of superficial deposits with water to expose and concentrate natural
tin ore accumulations in the valley floor, a process called tin streaming. At
the head of the channel is a boundary marker called a sett stone.
In the post-medieval period, a small farm was established east of the track at
the medieval settlement. Its two-roomed house is of pre-19th century origin on
an earlier foundation; around the house is a cluster of garden plots and
ancillary structures. To the south, the track was partly paved by slabs,
beside which are ruins of a small domed structure called a beehive hut. The
house was later included in a hedgebank marking the edge of a field system in
the valley floor whose boundaries extend beyond this scheduling. Several plots
on the down's eastern slope were again refurbished and the linear boundary
running onto north east Siblyback Moor remained in use, partly converted to a
hedgebank. In the 1880s a railway trackbed extended north west from railways
serving mines and quarries on south east Bodmin Moor. It was completed along
the east and north east of the downs, passing west of the medieval settlement
and across its field systems. The project collapsed about 1890, the trackbed
ending abruptly beyond the scheduling.
All modern fences, gates and fittings, and surfaces of the railway trackbed
and metalled forestry rides are excluded from the scheduling, although the
ground beneath them is included.
MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 5 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.
