| More information : 1. Willings Walls Reave (Fig 2A)
Total length : 1950m
Start of wall : SX 58306417
End of wall : SX 58596597. (1)
Willings Walls Reave starts in the col to the east of Great
Trowlesworthy Tor, in the marshy ground at the head-waters of a stream flowing south towards Lee Moor House. The first 150 metres from the origin to the point at which the reave approaches the raised bog at the head of the Spanish Lake are on a significantly different alignment from that of the reave further north; this alignment takes the wall through the middle of the col (as viewed from the northern side) to the head of the stream where it starts. At about 150 metres, the wall is absent on the dry land to the southof the bog at the head of the Spanish Lake.
It is possible that recent drainage activities may have led to the
removal of some of the reave here. It then crosses a section where it has been submerged by deep bog; however, the preservation of one small piece of wall in a drier place in the middle of the bog, and the fact that it could be found by probing at the north end of the bog, suggests that it was built continuously here, at a time when local conditions were much drier. The depth of the bog at this point helps to rule out any recent date for the reave.
North of the bog the reave has been demolished to provide stone for a substantial Medieval long house (Haynes 1970: 159). However, it soon continues northward, and in this section it has been provided in some places with a double orthostatic face; in one place the orthostats were 1m high and about 1.60m apart. About 350m north of the later building a small rectangular enclosure of uncertain date adjoins the reave. The reave forms its east wall, and there is a broad entrance gap to the west. 10m north of this, a D-shaped stone-based hut adjoins the reave on its eastern side. Its entrance is not apparent. At this point there is a gap of some 6-8 metres in the reave; its original width is uncertain, because the first ten metres of the resumed reave to the north have been robbed, leaving only a basal course. To the west of the gap lies a circular hut with an external diameter of 10 metres, also without a visible entrance. It is so placed as to ensure that the hollow-way which runs through the gap must do so obliquely.
This gap is almost certainly an original one, and the huts related to the original setting out of the reave, for the following reasons:
1. The misalignment of the reave at this point, and the slight
inturn of the terminal north of the gap as it approaches the
hollow-way, suggest that a gap was part of the original design here.
2. The positioning of the huts suggests a concern for "strategic" considerations. In the first place, both huts command the oblique hollow-way through the gap. Secondly, they are both on a slight spur which runs SE-NW, the effect of which is to prevent the section of reave south of the gap being visible from the north of the gap, and vice versa. Thus these huts are situated on the only spot from which both sections of the reave can be viewed at the same time.
3. The gap itself is situated in a sheltered gully, suggesting that
it was deliberately chosen for the movement of animals up and down the hill.
While none of these considerations is conclusive, the relationship between the siting and character of the gap, the huts and the reave suggests contemporaneity.
The reave continues northward for some 200 metres, at which point it turns through 40 degrees. In this area there are several
upright slabs some of which may be heavily robbed cist graves similar to the ones which survive further north. This turn is related to the configuration of the contours. Some 60m north of the turn is a point where two sections of wall join unconformably - it may be suggested that the work of two different gangs met up at this point. About 100 and 140m north of this the reave incorporates two small mounds, each some 5m in diameter. These are very small barrows of the type well known elsewhere in the Plym Valley (eg at Drizzlecombe) and may be related to the barrow with a cist some 15m to the west of the reave here, and to the traces of robbed cists further south (see above).
The next section of the reave proceeds slightly downhill to the
Hentor Brook. In this section the width of the wall is normally
1.60 - 1.70m. There are two gaps which may possibly be original about 130m south of the Hentor Brook. Streams flow over the reave at several points, suggesting that when the reave was built they flowed intermittently or not at all.
To the north of the Hentor Brook the reave can sometimes be seen underneath the tumble of a more recent wall. There are several gaps, of uncertain date, and a vermin trap. 225 metres north of the Hentor Brook there is a short spur running westward, and a disjointed piece of early walling on the same line as the spur. It is not clear whether this walling is robbed or unfinished, or whetther it was connected, or intended to be connected, with walls associated with the hut settlement further to the west. 60 metres north of this point the reave parts company with the recent wall. Although from this point it seems to have been heavily robbed, there seems little doubt that traces of it can be followed, curving westwards, on the slope down to the Plym, where it apparently ends. (2)
The reave system can only be interpreted as a boundary system, probably of a territorial nature, and appears to be contemporary with the Bronze Age hut circles and enclosures. (3)
The reave runs from SX 58246440 at 338.0m OD to SX 58596597 at 307.0m OD. It is complete for most of its length and is generally as described in (1) above. But see also plan with annotations.
The two "barrows" annotated on the line of the reave at SX 582653 are very doubtful. The most southerly adjoins a gap in the reave and could simply be the debris from it. The other 35.0m to the north east, appears as a swelling at a kink in the reave and could be the result of rebuilding or even gangwork.
Reave surveyed at 1:10 000 on PFD. (4)
SX 58426552 - SX 58246441. A length of Willings Walls Warren, running between the Hentor Brook and Spanish Lake Head. Between these points, the reave survives as a 2 metre wide rubble bank up to 0.8 metres high. Two gaps in the bank may represent original entrances. It is thought that the reave was designed to separate the higher moorland from the grazing land on the lower slopes. Scheduled. (5)
Depicted and described by Robertson and Butler. (6-7)
This feature is as described by Authority 2 though the interpretation of the gap at SX 58216495 is erroneous. At this point the reave is pierced by a medieval or later boundarywork see SX 56 SE 84). (8)
The Bronze Age Willings Walls reave, recorded by previous authorities, is visible as an earthwork on Environment Agency 1m Lidar data flown in 2019, 2021 Historic England orthomosaic aerial photography and visualisations of a Digital Elevation Model derived from the orthomosaic. It was mapped from aerial sources in 2023 during the Historic England Dartmoor-Plym project. The reave is approximately 1.6km long. There are two fragments, totalling approximately 64.2m in length, to the south of the medieval longhouse at SX 58251 64565 (NRHE 439325). The reave continues north, broken by a post-medieval drainage gully of Willings Walls warren (NRHE 438879) and, at SX 58209 64948, by the warren's boundary ditch. At that location, however, the break is approximately 27.5m long and at least one hut circle occupies the space (NRHE 439106) suggesting that the reave was oriented on the hut circle. From here, the reave continues northward to a Neolithic/Bronze Age embanked stone circle (NRHE 438720), over-riding the circle's south-eastern arc.
The reave turns to head north-east. At least two round cairns are on the reave's course (NRHE 1356035). The reave appears to have been destroyed by tin-streaming works in Hentor Brook but continues into the Hentor Farm field system (NRHE 438855). Vermin traps are built onto the reave at SX 58428 65526 (NRHE 438879) and SX 58482 65619 (NRHE 438876). Lengths of medieval/post-medieval field system come within 2m of the reave, but do not join it, at SX 58580 65799; this 'junction' thus appears to bring the reave into the later field system, whilst creating access into the large intakes formed either side of it. The reave heads north-east-north from this point for approximately 110.2m, broken in two places by a combination of recent trackways and water runoff. Evidence for the reave peters out at SX 58593 65908. Scheduled monument NHLE 1019082, NHLE 1019083. (9-11)
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