| More information : (SX 59006562) Hentor House (NAT) (Remains of) (NAT).
A deserted Medieval site, known as Hen Tor, at SX 590656, consisting of the remains of five buildings and enclosures. (1-3)
SX 590656. The Warren House, itself a longhouse, lies under Hentor, with its field system stretching west to Hentor Brook. Some of these field boundaries are of a very flimsy nature, so eroded that they are difficult to see. (4)
Below Hen Tor, on a slight north-west facing slope at 340.0m OD, is the remains of Hentor Warren House (SX 59006562) and its accompanying buildings, undoubted adjuncts of Hentor Warren (SX 56 NE 133). The main building is sub-divided into four parts (see plan (3)) the western end possibly being the dwelling house. The roughly dressed drystone walling averages 1.5m thick and 1.0m. high. The two outbuildings shown on the plan are also in good condition. At SX 58986553 is a platform, 5.0m by 4.0m and 0.3m high, while at SX 59086562 is the scant remains of a building, possibly a longhouse, 10.2m by 3.4m internally, incorporating boulders up to 1.0m high. These are possibly earlier buildings of the site which have been robbed for the later structures.
The fields are mainly to the south of the house and cover an area of about 8.0 hectares. They are irregular in shape and of varying construction. Some walls have neat orthostatic faces while others are merely a collection of loose boulders. Generally they are 0.9m wide and 0.8m high. Prehistoric field walls are incorporated into the later walls as well as huts (see SX 56 NE 78). Two pillow mounds also occur in the fields.
Surveyed at 1:10 000 on MSD. (5)
SX 59086562. The remains of a rectangular building, forming part of a post medieval farmstead. The building lies a short distance east of Hentor Farm, with which it is broadly contemporary. The structure consists of an open-ended rectangular building terraced into the slope of the hill. It measures 11.5 metres by 3.5 metres internally and the walls are formed by edge set orthostats 0.9 metres wide and up to 1.2 metres high. Scheduled. (7)
Buildings and field system depicted by Butler. (9)
Hentor House is described by Robertson (8) as a two-compartment rectangular structure...well-built and well-preserved. It lies on the N side of a group of buildings, described by Authority 5, that formed the core of Hentor Farm. Three other structures at SX 58916554, SX 58996555 and SX 59096562 (the latter described by Authority 7) lie divorced from this complex.
Hentor is first mentioned a document of 1375 though, according to Robertson, its origin is probably earlier. It is not possible to determine whether any structures dating from this period have survived. In line with most Plym Valley, and Devon, farmsteads the site was extensively rebuilt in the 16th or 17th centuries. Robertson suggests that Hentor House was a lobby-entrance, two-storied building in the stlye of many properties in the eastern half of the county. The site had been abandoned by the late 18th century. The creation of a warren at Hentor appears to be a relatively late event as the first record is not until 1807. It is possible that it was established following the cessation of habitation and was worked as part of the Ditsworthy holding. (10)
The medieval/post-medieval Hentor House, associated buildings and field system, recorded by previous authorities, are visible as stony structures and earthworks 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. They were mapped from aerial sources in 2023 during the Historic England Dartmoor-Plym project.
The main farmstead is centred at SX 59002 65598. It comprises a longhouse, oriented roughly east-west, approximately 15m long with an entrance in the south wall. It has two internal rooms and structures attached to both the west, east and south walls. The longhouse stands in a yard along with at least two other buildings and a small enclosure that is cut by the later Phillips Leat (NRHE 1360628).
About 72m to the south of the main longhouse, a small sub-square enclosure centred on SX 58990 65536 includes a longhouse, oriented roughly north-west to south-east and approximately 13m long, with entrances in both north and south walls. There is an irregular earthwork platform in the centre of the enclosure, about 6.8m long. The east end of the longhouse and the enclosure are cut by the Phillips Leat.
The two enclosures containing these buildings are integral to the field system, defined by a combination of rubblestone walls and earthwork field boundaries. A group of fields is laid out across the 325m to 355m contours on the north-east side of the head of Hentor Brook, north-west of Hen Tor. The system overlies part of a Bronze Age settlement (NRHE 438723) and is cut by the Philips Leat. Fragments of walling survive following the north-east side of the Brook towards the River Plym in the north-west, at least as far as SX 58293 65576. From SX 58221 65749 to SX 58583 65860 the field system's northern boundary, about 380m long, is defined by a ditch with a bank to its north, down-slope, side and lengths of bank to its south side. This boundary is linked to the Willings Walls Reave (NRHE 438849) by a 67m long bank and ditch centred on SX 58549 65814. Thus a large intake is defined on the west side of the Bronze Age reave by using it as a boundary in the later field system. At the same junction, but not attached to the reave, a boundary bank to the east side of the reave is oriented south-west to north-east leading into a large medieval/post-medieval field system on the south bank of the River Plym (NRHE 438855). A length of field wall extending from the field immediately to the north of Hentor House is also oriented on that northern field system. For a discussion of these latter field boundaries, see NRHE 438855.
Pillow mounds and drainage ditches of the post-medieval Hentor Warren (NRHE 438876) are arranged amongst the fields. In addition to the buildings mentioned above, two ruined buildings are located at SX 58908 65531 and SX 59084 65616. The former measures 11.4m by 8.0m on plan, with an entrance in its north wall. The latter is more fragmentary, comprising the eastern end of a sub-rectangular structure. On the basis of analogy with the similarly complex field system at nearby Trowlesworthy (NRHE 1360637), it is possible that the possibly medieval elements of the field system include more sinuous earthwork field boundaries with later, post-medieval, developments in rubblestone. The adaptation of fields for warrening and the passage of the Phillips Leat through Hentor House's field system suggests that the farm was out of use by the early 1800s. (11-13)
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