More information : A previously un-noted Iron Age/Romano-British settlement
centred at NY 70126222, about 195m OD, on the gentle north east
facing slopes of a rough pastural hill shoulder.
It consists of a near square enclosure about 60m east to west by 60m
north to south between the centres of a ditch about 2.0m wide 0.5m
deep. The ditch has an internal turf-covered earth and stone bank
(about 3.0m wide 0.6m maximum height) on the west and south sides,
and an external bank of similar dimensions in the north and east.
Breaks at the east ends of the north and south sides suggest that
there were entrances here, but the banks and ditches merely fade out
and there are not true well-defined causeways as such.
Internally the enclosure is sub-divided by a wall
running north to south across it, about 18.0m parallel to
its east side. Access to the larger west compartment thus formed
has been at its south end where the wall inturns for about 16.0m to
the west before it is lost in the peat.
Inside this west compartment, further up the slope, are the remains
of three turf-covered stone walled huts a, b and c.
'a' is 11.3m in diameter over a well-formed wall 1.7m wide 0.5m
high, with an entrance 1.1m wide in the east north east.
'b' is 9.0m in diameter over a less well-defined wall 1.3m wide 0.3m
high. It has an ill-defined entrance in the east.
'c' is 4.6m diameter over a wall 1.0m wide 0.3m high with an
ill-defined entrance in the east.
The huts are connected to the dividing wall of the enclosure on the
east by two turf-covered earth and stone banks each about 2.0m wide
0.4m high.
At 'd' is a flat area about 7.0m in diameter which may possibly have
been the stance for another hut.
Outside the settlement, about 25m south east of its south entrance,
is a possible stone clearance heap (about 2.0m diameter 0.4m high)
but otherwise no evidence of any associated cultivation was seen.
Discovered during field investigation: surveyed at 1:2500 on MSD
with enlargement at 1:1250. (1)
Almost all of the features described above were seen as earthworks on air photographs. Some of the internal banks and the clearance heap could not be discerned on available photography. (2)
2016 aerial reconnaissance photography shows a large rectilinear enclosure to the immediate south-west of the settlement enclosure described above, which is probably associated. This embanked enclosure is elongated north to south and measures 57m by 105m.
(3) |