Historic England research records

Historic England Research Records

Devils Quoit
Hob Uid: 430698
Location : Cornwall St. Columb Major
Grid Ref : SW9232061930
Summary : Site of a chambered tomb, originally comprised of four supporting stones and a capstone. No evidence to deny or confirm presence of a surrounding mound.
More information : (SW 92326193) Giant's Quoit (NR) (site of) (NAT) (1) A large free-standing chamber, being used as a goat house, stood in the corner of a yard adjoining the road at Quoit. 'Whittaker describes the orthostats as three tall pillar stones 6 ft 11 ins., 7 ft and 7 ft 6 ins respectively in height' (2) It had collapsed by 1858 and when seen by Borlase in 1871 'a few fough spar stones, split up and ready to carry away, was all that remained ...(3) Daniel lists the site as a doubtful chambered tomb. (4) There is no trace of any stonework at the OS published site in the garden of 'Little Quoit'. (5) The site of the chambered tomb at Quoit was examined in 1977 during the laying of a water main, see plan (6). The presence of a chamber has long been known, the farm being named Coyt in 1450 (7). It has been referred to variously in the past as 'Devil's Coyt' (h), 'Arthur's Quoit' (c) and 'Coit' or 'Quoit Cromlech' (d) (e) (no mention occurs of the OS published name). Structural evidence is taken by Johnson from the earlier authorities, see illustration, and its character and appearance deduced. It is shown to have originally comprised 4 supports and a capstone forming a closed box structure in the same class as those at Chun (SW 43 SW,29) and Mulfra (SW 43 NE, 65), dated to the 3rd millenium BC. There was no evidence to confirm or deny the presence of a surrounding mound. The complete structure was standing about 1700 AD but the western sidestone was removed before 1800 and a buttress stone placed on the east side. By 1840 (f) it was probably still standing but the eastern side stone was built into the N-S hedge of the yard. The chamber partially collapsed between 1840 and 1850 and by about 1970 the stones had been split and either buried or incorporated in surrounding hedges. Investigation at the site revealed broken stone blocks of varying sizes, most having been deliberately buried, see plan for distribution. (6-7) SW 924621 Chambered tomb included in the gazeteer and distribution plan of Neolithic Cornwall. (8)

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Source Number : 1
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Source details : OS 6" 1963
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Source Number : 2
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Page(s) : 241
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Source Number : 6e
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Source details : Naen Corn, 1872, 61 (W C Borlase).
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Source Number : 6f
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Source details : Tithe Map, 1840.
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Source Number : 7
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Source Number : 8
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Source details : A Preston-Jones and P Rose
Page(s) : 76
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Vol(s) : 25, 1986

Source Number : 2a
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Source details : Cathedral of Corn 2,76 (Whittaker)
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Source Number : 3
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Source details : Naenia Corn1872 61.2 (W C Borlase)
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Source Number : 4
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Source details : Anc Crosses Corn 1858 69 (J T Blight.)
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Source Number : 5
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Source details : F1 MJF 10-JAN-71
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Source Number : 6
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Source details : N Johnson
Page(s) : 03-Nov
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Vol(s) : 18, 1979

Source Number : 6b
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Source details : Tonkin T. 1702. A Parochial History of Cornwall, 218
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Source Number : 6c
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Source details : Hitchens F and Drew S. 1824. The History of Cornwall from the Earliest Records to the Present Time, William Penaluna, Helston, 170
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Source Number : 6d
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Page(s) : 130
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Monument Types:

Monument Period Name : Neolithic
Display Date : Neolithic
Monument End Date : -2200
Monument Start Date : -4000
Monument Type : Chambered Tomb
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Components and Objects:

Related Records from other datasets:

External Cross Reference Source : National Monuments Record Number
External Cross Reference Number : SW 96 SW 8
External Cross Reference Notes :

Related Warden Records :

Related Activities :

Associated Activities :
Activity type : FIELD OBSERVATION (VISUAL ASSESSMENT)
Start Date : 1971-01-10
End Date : 1971-01-10

Associated Activities :
Activity type : WATCHING BRIEF
Start Date : 1977-01-01
End Date : 1977-12-31

Historic England Research Records

Devils Quoit