Chapter 8. The West Country
8.2 Devon – off the Moors
Andrew Fleming’s re-discovery of the Bronze Age origins of the Dartmoor land boundaries and subsequent campaign of survey and excavation was a major breakthrough in prehistoric studies.
The characteristic moorland reaves date to the 18th and 17th centuries BC around the time that houses on Shaugh Moor were being built (Fleming 1988, 105; Wainwright and Smith 1980, figure 23).
Fleming’s eloquent, humorous and enthusiastic account of the reaves placed Dartmoor centre stage in Bronze Age studies and encouraged a new generation of landscape archaeologists (1988). The National Park is a fascinating place.
It is the best preserved late second and early first millennium BC landscape in Europe and visitors are able to walk the droveways, explore the associated settlements, cattle pounds and linear boundaries. Not surprisingly, therefore, the moorlands act as a research magnet and continue to be the focus for landscape study in Devon.
However, despite renewed research on the moors, the study of that landscape has progressed remarkably little since Fleming’s breakthrough in the 1970’s and 1980’s. The reason is simple.
To some extent concentration on the National Park legacy has overshadowed interest in the contemporary lowlands but, more crucially, data on this area off the moor has remained largely unavailable. Such a research imbalance is a serious impediment in trying to unravel the social
significance of the reaves. Fleming was acutely aware of this problem in the early days of his work, suggesting that a second breakthrough was necessary if research in Devon was to progress.
The secrets of contemporary settlement and land management in the surrounding river valleys and coastal foreshores needed to be unlocked (1988, 122). Fortunately contract archaeology is now beginning to provide that much needed insight (Figure 8.1).
Recent commercial work has uncovered further sections of the stone boundary walls of the Bronze Age reaves on the fringes of the moorlands, to the north at Sourton Down (Weddell and Reed 1997) and possibly to the south at Ugborough (Reed undated). More significantly, traces of ditched and banked field boundaries have been found to the east in the Exe valley (Reed 2001;
Barber 2000a, b) and at Castle Hill at Feniton overlooking the River Otter (Butterworth 1999a).
The Feniton site (Figure 8.2) was a particularly important discovery, one of a number of Bronze Age sites recorded during the A30 Honiton to Exeter Road improvement works. Castle Hill comprises a Middle Bronze Age coaxial field system dated both by radiocarbon determination to 1440–1120 cal. BC [AA-30671; 3060± 55 BP]
(Butterworth 1999a, 28) and by the significant number of Middle Bronze Age diagnostic sherds.
This ceramic material is important:
a) because it is the first assemblage of its kind from east Devon, and because
b) Castle Hill is located in a zone where two ceramic traditions merge. In consequence the locally made pottery is influenced both by the Deverel-Rimbury Wessex tradition and the Trevisker style of the south-west (Laidlaw and Mepham 1999, 47).
The Castle Hill coaxial field system is sited 450m to the north west of Fenny Bridges and there are
Land, Power and Prestige 66
Figure 8.1 South Devon. 1. Alexandra Close. 2. Hazel Grove. 3. Sherford Road. 4. Sourton Down. 5. Station Road, Plympton. 6. Martin Deane Nursery. 7. Ugborough. 8. Thurlestone Sands. 9. Parsonage Cross. 10. Jetty Marsh Link Road, Newton Abbot. 11. Kerswell Down and Whilborough Common. 12. Digby. 13. Hayes Farm, Clyst Honiton. 14. Langland Lane. 15. Patteson’s Cross. 16. Castle Hill, Feniton. 17. Hayne Lane. Site details in Table 8.1
some indications in the A30 findings to suggest that Castle Hill is not an isolated instance of Bronze Age land appropriation along the River Otter valley. Nearby to the west at Langland Lane a Middle Iron Age enclosure appears to be sited within an earlier coaxial field system (Butterworth 1999c, figure 66. Fitzpatrick 1999c, 90). 250m to the east of Langland Lane lies the Middle Bronze Age settlement site at Patteson’s Cross which again has possible elements of a prehistoric field system (Butterworth 1999d, 80). Finally, further upstream at Hayne Lane an enclosed farmstead of Middle/Late Bronze Age date was also excavated (Butterworth 1999b). The A30 developer-funded work therefore suggests that the valley corridor of the Otter was a focus for more extensive settlement and farming. That realisation has implications for any further works in the area and raises the intriguing prospect that the nearby Axe valley on the eastern boundary of the county may also have similar landscapes. The surprises do not end here. Immediately adjacent to the road route near Exeter at Clyst Honiton, another portion of a Middle Bronze Age field
system has been recorded (Figure 8.3) and the pottery, dating from the thirteenth century BC, closely resembles similar Trevisker styles found on Dartmoor and further west (Barber 2000a, b).
Clyst Honiton is located near the River Exe.
A recent investigation on the Exe gravel terraces of the lower reaches indicates that the most significant period of landscape change was during the Early to Middle Bronze Age (Fyfe, Brown and Coles 2003, 179).
If we switch now to the opposite end of the county there is again mounting evidence of lowland settlement and possible land division contemporary with activity on Dartmoor. In Elburton there are recurrent finds of Bronze Age activity including a remarkable Early/Middle Bronze Age flat cremation cemetery at Alexandra Close (Watts and Quinell 2001); prehistoric linear boundaries at Sherford Road (Reed and Watts 1998), Hazel Grove (Sage and Rance 1994; Gent 1996) and Martin Deane Nursery (Watts 1995). The dating for these land divisions is sparse but their clustering is of considerable interest. Further to the north in Plympton at ‘Trevanion’, Station Road, reave-like
The West Country 67
Figure 8.2 Castle Hill. A30 Honiton to Exeter roadworks. Derived from Butterworth 1999a. The Middle Bronze Age coaxial field system appears to have been dug in sections. This is shown most clearly in the south-west corner of the main block of fields where a steep sided flat-bottomed ditch (section F) met a shallow, V-shaped ditch (section G) less than half its size. Construction gangs may have worked on the boundaries
boundaries and a possible trackway have also been recorded (Wessex Archaeology 1995c).
The pattern emerging so far suggests that settlement and land tenure is concentrated in the southern half of Devon from Dartmoor down to the sea. If that is the case then Dartmoor is one part of a wider division and land was exploited from the channel foreshores up onto the moorland heights. The Plymouth finds from Plympton and Elburton together with palaeo-environmental evidence from Thurlestone Sands and Newton Abbot support this line of reasoning.
At Thurleston the winter storms of 1998 exposed a 500 sq.m. area of intertidal peat deposit which had started to accumulate between 1890–1630 cal. BC 10006; 3445±50 BP) and 1870–1520 cal. BC (A-10005; 3370±50 BP). The presence of dung beetles and species associated with pasture suggest increasing human influence on the landscape in the upper peat levels (Reed and Whitton
1998, 3). Palaeo-environmental evidence from Newton Abbot also suggests coastal Middle Bronze Age open grassland and cereal type pollens (Reed 1997, 3). The discovery of the Salcombe hoard, off Moor Sand (Muckelroy 1981), also adds weight to the coastal orientation of these communities.
Relatively few Devon lowland sites have so far been discovered, so any conclusions are of course tentative. However, one intriguing characteristic of the Devon valley and coastal sites is of particular interest. The social significance of these farming boundaries, in common with rectilinear land blocks throughout the study area, declines during the first millennium BC. This lowland picture enables us to start to address the issue of why the Dartmoor Bronze Age land system reached such a peak of activity and then development stopped. One recurrent explanation is that the prehistoric landscape was left intact
Land, Power and Prestige 68
because environmental change caused the reduction in activity. Caseldine and Hatton have questioned that interpretation (1994). Excavations on the Southern English lowlands indicate that a decline in field construction was more to do with socio-political change with a switch to a new form of food production and social ownership of land (Bradley and Yates in press). That is what makes further commercial work in Devon so important in helping to explain the remarkable end of the Dartmoor reave system.
8.3 Cornwall
Across the Tamar lies Cornwall and, further west, the isolated archipelago of the Isles of Scilly. Here we are far removed from the political economies of the East Anglian Fenlands and the Thames Valley but still according to Rowlands inexorably part of that alliance and exchange network comprising the Atlantic Region (1980).
Any fears that the phenomenon of permanent boundary construction would run out in these westernmost limits of Southern England are soon Figure 8.3 Hayes Farm, Clyst Honiton near Exeter. Derived from Barber 2000b. Middle Bronze Age land divisions were discovered on a sand and gravel river terrace to the east of the River Clyst. The overlying soils of the Bridgenorth series were well drained and easily cultivated. Limited evidence of post-Bronze Age activity was encountered. The pottery assemblage mainly dates to the 13th century BC
The West Country 69
dispelled, for there is an abundance of prehistoric field systems in the area (Figure 8.4). Increasing in density towards the end of the peninsula, many are recorded as being of Bronze Age origin. However, the nature of these boundaries differs radically from those encountered in the central southern and south eastern counties. They are dominated by a bewildering array of freeform styles, unhindered by predetermined conventions of linearity or accepted orientation. The variation in these enclosing barriers is reflected in the rich and diverse nomenclature used by archaeologists in their field notebooks –
“round, hybrid, nested, straggly, accreted, radial, spider’s web, cells, cellular, organic, molecular and irregular” to name but a few. These different terms mask their essential unity: namely, that they are piecemeal creations evolving without adherence to imposed conventions of regimented land design.
They are customised to suit local conditions and
local communities. That legacy of individualistic expression is seen to best effect in the enclosed lands of West Penwith.
Within this rich matrix of enduring forms survey work reveals that there are sporadic instances of coaxial and linear boundaries – the familiar straight-sided coaxial and rectilinear fields which prevail towards the east. They are not as prevalent as those on Dartmoor (Smith 1996, 214) and are in part hidden or partially obscured by succeeding land management systems, but they exist. It is therefore possible to conclude that the concept of coaxiality was adopted at various places along the entire southern shoreline between the gateway island of Thanet and Land’s End. In Cornwall those coaxial land blocks include:-i. In West Penwith; Pennance (Herring 1990a), Wicca
(Herring 1986b) and Chysauster (Smith 1996, 170);
Figure 8.4 Cornwall. 1. Maen Castle. 2. Cornish Way, Lands End. 3. Nanquidno Downs. 4. Kenidjack.
5. Sancreed Beacon. 6. Bosigran. 7. Rosemergy. 8. Boswednack Farm. 9. Pennance. 10. Trewey-Foage.
11. Wicca. 12. Chysauster. 13. Trevessa Farm. 14. Amalveor. 15. Pig Moor. 16. Perranuthnoe. 17. Gwithian.
18. Godolphin. 19. Kynance Gate. 20. St. Agnes Head. 21. Wheal Coates. 22. Poldowrian. 23. Kestlemerris.
24. Polcoverack. 25. St. Keverne. 26. Trethellan Farm. 27. Trevisker. 28. Penhale. 29. Trenowah. 30. Hamatethy.
31. Rowden. 32. Watergate. 33. Stannon Down. 34. Roughtor. 35. Blacktor Downs. 36. Leskernick Hill.
37. Carne Down. 38. Smallacoombe. 39. East Moor. 40. Kit Hill. Site details in Table 8.2
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ii. inland from Mounts Bay; Godolphin (Cole et al.
2001);
iii. on the gabbro rock of the Lizard near to St. Keverne, the sites of Kestlemerris and Polcoverack (Johnson 1980, figure 8), Trebarveth, Trevalsoe and Trevean (Johns and Herring 1996);
iv. on Bodmin Moor; a major coaxial junction at East Moor (Brisbane and Clews 1979) and fragments including Roughtor, Carne Downs, Watergate, Smallacoombe and Hamatethy (Johnson and Rose 1994 map 1; Herring cf.); and,
v. close to the Tamar; Kit Hill, providing a visual link between Bodmin and Dartmoor (Herring and Thomas 1990).
One thing that Cornwall does not lack, therefore, is prehistoric boundaries, and camouflaged amongst them are linear elements.
The difficulty is in determining the precise age of both the cellular or organic boundaries and the more mechanistic linear land blocks. Most of the dating has been determined by meticulous survey which has established the relative dating of boundaries compared to monuments and settlement in the immediate locality, with final interpretation often reliant on analogy to comparable structures on Dartmoor. Where small-scale excavation has accompanied survey, again dating has been hampered by the paucity of material culture associated with the Bronze Age upland sites in Cornwall. Only rarely are diagnostic artefacts discovered, for example metalwork incorporated into the field banks at Amalveor and Kenidjack (Johnson 1980, 149).
The prehistoric farming sequence on the peninsula is long and complicated, combining pre-enclosure clearance, different phases of boundary construction and modification, abandonment phases and often later re-occupation. With such long chronologies the Cornish farms require extended excavation to gather enough material to determine precise sequencing and the nature of the farming regimes. Two sites on the north coast, Trethellan Farm near to Newquay and Gwithian close to Hayle Sands, show what is possible.
Shortly before PPG16 was implemented, a well preserved Middle Bronze Age settlement with contemporary field boundaries was recorded at Trethellan Farm, overlooking the Gannel. This is a site of national importance for prehistorians, famed for the discovery of ritualised practices associated with the life of the occupants and decommissioning rites accompanying the abrupt erasure of the settlement when all signs of habitation were concealed. For our purposes
Trethellan Farm is important because it illustrates the gains of larger scale excavation. The range of dating evidence included sixteen radiocarbon dates from Bronze Age sealed contexts (most fell within a time band of 1500–1200 BC); a very substantial pottery assemblage comprising 5,795 sherds of Trevisker style pottery including 25 or so heavily abraded pieces found scattered in the matrix of one of the linear stony field boundaries (Nowakowski 1991, 82); and the find of a bronze ferrule and spearhead on the mid slopes of the scarp at the foot of the northern field boundary (ibid. 84). Investigation suggested that the first major field boundary edging the southern side of the settlement had been of earth, later consolidated in stone. This was possibly faced by a retaining fence (ibid. 82), just the kind of detail that survey alone cannot reveal.
Trethellan Farm provided a rare insight into Middle Bronze Age land division in lowland Cornwall. Subsequent laboratory work on lipid residues on the pottery found that animal fats characterise the assemblage. This suggests that despite limited evidence for husbandry practices on site – mixed farming at Trethellan Farm was highly probable (Copley 2001; Nowakowski cf.).
Along the coast towards St. Ives an aggregates levy funded re-investigation of the field system and settlement at Gwithian, currently in progress, has confirmed that the first land boundaries were built in the 2nd millennium BC. The research investigation has discovered plough and spade marks together with evidence for the artificial creation of soils – a mixture of pot, animal and human bone. People here were farming a very precarious environment which was susceptible to major sand blows from the beach (Nowakowski cf.). Gwithian was eventually overwhelmed by sand drift and the site became protected by the towans (dunes) formed at the base of Godrevy Point.
Inland, commercial projects have provided the opportunity to investigate prehistoric landscapes at Penhale, Trenowah and Tremough (Nowakowski 1998; Johns 2000; Gossip 2003). In each case the ditched field systems encountered were of Later Iron Age date. The Middle Bronze Age open settlement recorded at Penhale was associated with post fencing but again lacked more permanent boundaries.
One further observation is worth making;
Cornish coaxial land divisions often enclose prime farming land. For example, Chysauster once benefited from a capping of over 600mm
The West Country 71 of brickearth (Smith 1996, 215); East Moor
incorporated all the better drained areas (Brisbane and Clews 1979, 46); and, Kestlemerris, Polcoverack and the St. Keverne sites rest on the deep yellow fertile gabbro soils (Johns and Herring 1996).
Social standing in the Later Bronze Age was perhaps defined in terms of long distance alliances and the ability to compete for prestigious possessions. The occurrence of Trevisker pottery outside of Cornwall provides one indication of that extended contact. ApSimon and Greenfield catalogued the wide dispersal of Trevisker pottery and their gazetteer included finds from Norton Fitzwarren overlooking the Vale of Taunton, Dalkey Island in Co. Dublin and Hardelot in the Pas de Calais (1972). Recently, similar ceramics have been recorded at Monkton in Kent (Peter Clark cf.), confirming contact between the extreme limits of the southern shoreline. One recent site, however, stands out. The discovery of a Later Bronze Age field system and settlement near to St. Vaast-la-Hougue, is unparalleled in French archaeology (Marcigny and Ghesquière 2003a).
These Normandy field boundaries (Figure 8.5) on Ile Tatihou are remarkable in themselves, but the finds of Trevisker and Deverel-Rimbury pottery in the settlement have much wider implications.
They provide dramatic evidence of cross channel exchange within an extended regional economy.