More information : (SX 144803) Hut Circles (NR). (1)
Hut circles and fields, see plan (3) The fields are classified by Dudley as Medieval, but Dyer and Thomas consider them to be Bronze Age. (2-5)
The field pattern is similar to Stannon Down (SX 18 SW 1) which is dated by R J Mercer possibly to the Middle Bronze Age (1200-1000 BC). (6)
Roughtor Moors. An extensive Bronze Age settlement and field system centred SX 146803, extending 600m E-W and occupying 14 hectares of the lower southern slope of Rough Tor at 900 ft OD.
It comprises some 40 hut circles from 5.0m to 12.0m diameter, mainly of single wall construction and in varying states of preservation from residual to 1.2m high. Entrances, where visible, occur from SW to SE. Many huts have annexes and associated small enclosures conjoined by now fragmentary field walls. Several hut groups are contained or integrated within three separate pounds, each about 0.5 hectare in area.
The western limit of settlement and 300.0m of the southern periphery is defined by a generally continuous bank of field clearance stones. Between SX 14508017 and SX 14728025 this boundary is particularly fine and noteworthy, being constructed of a double row of vertical stones up to 1.0m high with the interspace filled by surface rubble.
Eastward of the hut groups is a well preserved system of strip-fields (maximum size 122.0m by 40.0m) aligned E/SE down the relatively steep hill slope. The fields are bounded by banks up to 0.7m high of field clearance stones; strong lynchets occur along the downhill southernfield margins. Narrow rig and furrow of Medieval date is clearly evident in all these
fields. This system retains a palimpsest of the irregular field boundaries and a large pound, of probable Bronze Age date. A few residual hut circles survive in the area.
An isolated hut circle occurs at SX 14508045.
Surveyed at 1:2500 on PFD in conjunction with OS AP (a). (7)
Scheduled. (8)
The Bronze Age occupation on Roughtor comprises a straggly open settlement consisting of huts connected by sinuous walls which was remodelled by the building of several pounds, see plan. (9)
Pound 1, known as 'Potato Field' from its shape, has been absorbed into the later re-use of the site for medieval rig and furrow (stippled areas).
Pound 2 is definitely later than the huts which abutt it on the north and west. The pound wall butts onto one of the huts and an entrance facing SE in the other hut has been blocked
since the newly built pound changed the access available.
A similar situation exists in the Dshaped enclosure, or Pound 3, where another hut at the SE corner has the original north-facing doorway blocked and a new one inserted facing away from the enclosure wall. (10)
A plan and discussion can be found in the published report of the Bodmin Moor project. (11)
Scheduled, National Number 11548. (12)
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