REPORTS COVERING TORRIDGE DISTRICT COUNCIL 2012
Table 1 sets out the reports filed with Archaeological Data Services for 2012. The
reports are discussed in a little more detailed in alphabetical order of parish.
A brief synthesis of the findings of 2012 completes the document.
Table 1 Summary of reports for 2012
In 2012 15 sites were investigated in 9 parishes, with 4 sites in Bideford and 3
in Hartland. A total of eight organisations produced reports, with South West Archaeology
contributing 6, A C Archaeology contributing 4 and single reports from Allen Environmental
Archaeology, Context One Archaeology, Durham University Archaeology Services, Historic
Environment Projects of Cornwall County Council and Nottingham Tree-Ring Dating Laboratory.
Most of the proposed developments concerned building works and housing development.
There was one wind turbine and one solar farm.
1. Abbotsham: Old School
The report concerned a watching brief during construction of an extension to the
existing building, which first had been a parish poor house and later a school. The
site adjoins St Helen’s church in the centre of the village. The foundation trench
monitored produced five sherds of pottery, from the seventeenth to the eighteenth
centuries, all of which were of North Devon origin. The topsoil also yielded fragments
of disarticulated human bone, which have been left for reburial in the nearby churchyard.
2. Beaford: Upcott Barton
The report concerned a geophysical survey on a site proposed for a solar farm on
Upcott Barton, about 1 km NE of Beaford village. Approximately 14 ha was surveyed.
In 2010 Durham Archaeological Services had done a desk-based assessment of the site.
Upcott Barton is one of the medieval farms within the parish. Most of the geophysical
anomalies found were linear and were plough marks, field drains or probable former
field boundaries. In one area, lying about 300 metres east of the modern farm there
was a complex series of ditches seemingly forming an enclosure, which is presumed
to be late Bronze Age or Iron Age.
3. Bideford: 1-5 Bridge Street
The report concerns tree-ring analysis of the timbers in the building, recently known
as the Tavern in the Port. It lies about 50 metres from the western end of Bideford
Long Bridge. Samples of oak roof timbers were taken from 1, 2, 3 and 5 Bridge Street.
The earliest felling dates (AD 1570-1621) were found in 2 Bridge Street and 1 Bridge
Street had timbers with similar felling dates (AD 1583-1606). Felling dates of the
timbers in 3 and 5 Bridge Street were a little later (1672-1720 for 3 Bridge Street
and 1679-1702 for 5 Bridge Street). It is not clear whether the timbers represent
original work, perhaps drawing on a variety of timber yard stock, or represent a
mixture of new and reused timber.
4. Bideford: 28 Bridgeland Street and 5 Queen Street
The report concerns desk study and historic buildings recording of two properties
whose gardens and yard abut one another and where redevelopment was proposed. Bridgeland
Street, as its name suggests, was initially developed at the behest of the Feoffees
of Bideford Bridge Trust at the end of the seventeenth century. Number 28
Bridgeland Street appears on a plan of 1745. The present building contains alterations,
probably of the late eighteenth century, to the original. Queen Street owes its
origins to various widenings of Bideford Quay and may well have directly fronted
onto the river before the New Quay was constructed in 1663. A 1720 plan, now in
poor condition, shows that the land to the rear of both properties was orchard, garden
and various outhouses. The report gives details of the two buildings and offers
a probable development chronology. 28 Bridgeland Street started as an L-shaped building
in 1693 and a significant second phase occurred in the late eighteenth/early nineteenth
centuries, with some reorganisation on the ground floor, a new entrance and a projecting
bow window above it and a second staircase installed. Late nineteenth century work
involved some divisions of first floor rooms. 5 Queen Street also originated in
the late seventeenth century, probably as a two storied structure, with the second
floor then added inlate eighteenth/early nineteenth century reordering.
5. Bideford: New Road
The report concerns palaeo-environmental analysis of materials from coring undertaken
as part of the construction of a new walk way on the east side of New Road, just
upstream of Bideford Long Bridge. Borehole work had shown an accumulation of 9 -11
metres of silt and alluvium over bed rock and had suggested the presence of a former
channel of a small tributary of the Torridge. This was cored and a record of c 7
metres of sediment made. Material for radiocarbon dating was recovered from the
top and middle of the sediment sequence and pollen, diatoms, plant remains and molluscs
were also analysed. The calibrated radiocarbon dates, both from fragments of alder
were 2470-2580 BC and 2630-2880 BC, within the Neolithic. The combined data suggest
that in the late Neolithic the area was estuarine, with alder carr, grasses and sedges,
but becoming a more open landscape soon after and sands and gravels of marine and
open estuary provenance tend to dominate in the core samples of more recent time.
There is no direct evidence of human activity. The vegetation history revealed
here is more or less the same as that found at Pill Farm Tawstock and at the Taw
Bridge Barnstaple during construction of the Barnstaple western by-pass.
6. Bideford: 6a The Quay
The report concerns archaeological monitoring during the demolition of the exisiting
building, which had been the subject of an earlier historic building assessment by
South West Archaeology. The site lies just downstream of the western end of Bideford
Long Bridge. Very little of archaeological interest was found, the most interesting
being 2 shards of eighteenth century North Devon gravel tempered ware and 2 clay
pipe stems, also from the eighteenth century.
7. Great Torrington: 50 New Street
The report concerns archaeological monitoring during foundation works as part of
the construction of a new dwelling on land to the rear of the property. The site
is c 300 NW of the parish church and on the north side of New Street. Nothing of
archaeological significance was found. More might have been expected as the site
probably within or very close to the burgage plots.
8. Great Torrington: Vaughan’s Glove Factory, White’s Lane
The report concerns an historic buildings record of the last surviving glove factory
in Torrington. The building is to be converted into apartments. The factory was
constructed in 1884 and perhaps its character as akin to a non-conformist chapel
may reflect the religious character of William Vaughan, for whom it was built. White
Marland brick features prominently in its construction. The report records the building’s
features and also catalogues some of the graffiti and an old poster found.
9. Hartland: Bursdon Moor
The report concerns a watching brief at Four Barrows on Bursdon Moor, Hartland, where
an existing water-trough was been re-sited and new troughs and associated water supply
pipes installed. The wider context was as part of a programme to restore habitat
and sustain a more effective management for nature conservation. The base on which
the old trough had been laid was not removed and so no archaeology was exposed. Excavations
for the two new troughs and water supply yielded nothing of archaeological significance.
While such limited excavation may not have been expected to yield much, the absence
of any other archaeology around the barrows suggests that they stood in an otherwise
unoccupied setting in the landscape.
10. Hartland: Church of Our Lady and St Nectan, Well Lane
The report is concerns an historic building recording of the former Roman Catholic
church in Well Lane, about 200 metres east of the square in the centre of the village.
It is intriguing that the church, whose fabric was a converted temporary school
classroom of the type commonly used c 1960-1970 and from which all the useful furniture
and liturgical fittings were removed prior to the survey, should be given an HBR.
The report gives a useful summary of the establishment of the church in the 1960s.
It does not mention that a wooden statue of St Nectan has been moved and is now in
the parish church at Stoke. Given that the site was close to the centre of the village,
and could be presumed to have some medieval archaeology, it was odd that no watching
brief was issued when the church was demolished and the site prepared for housing
development.
11. Hartland: Harbourcross, Meddon
The report concerns an archaeological watching brief at Harbourcross, Meddon as the
site was prepared to install an anemometer mast. Meddon is one of the larger hamlets
within Hartland parish and the site lies 1.2 km to the NE and about 1.5 km east of
the A39. Eight trenches were as foundations for the mast. None of the trenches
yielded anything of archaeological significance.
12. Holsworthy: The Old Show Ground
The report concerns archaeological evaluation trenches dug on the 7 hectare site,
about 600 metres NNE of St Peter’s church. The trenches revealed traces of former
field boundaries known from nineteenth century maps. Two sherds of late medieval
or very early post-medieval coarse-ware were found in one trench but the context
is unclear as it also contained Victorian earthenware and porcelain fragments.
13. Holsworthy Hamlets: Manworthy
The report concerns archaeological monitoring at a site on the northern outskirts
of Holsworthy, about 1.8 km N of Holsworthy square. It was also close to another
site where pre-development archaeological assessment had suggested the existence
of a prehistoric enclosure. In the event, preparation work at the Manworthy site
had already occurred and the soil stripped and levelled. It was thought possible
that some archaeology may have survived and monitoring of further work was required.
None of the sections exposed revealed any archaeology, but a worn sherd of possible
Iron Age pottery was recovered from one of the spoil heaps.
14. Parkham: Babeleigh Barton
The report concerns a desk-based assessment and a visual impact assessment for a
single wind turbine at Babeleigh Barton. The site is c 500 metres SSE of Babeleigh
Barton farm and 1.5km SE of Parkham village. The Tithe Maps shows the area to have
been arable, although the reports does not suggest the possibility that the land
was beat-burned and so arable for only two or three years at intervals of around
15 to 20 years. By the 1890s the land was all rough grazing, the state to which it
probably reverted between beat-burning. Most of the visual impacts were rated as
negative/minor or in the range negative/minor to moderate.
15. Peters Marland: Marland school
The report concerns a desk-based assessment and archaeological evaluation of a trial
trench at Marland school. The site is within 50 metres of St Peter’s church. A
building occupied the site of the school on the Tithe Map. I t may be presumed that
the site was part of the home manor of Peter’s Marland parish and thus have the potential
to yield medieval archaeology. Finds included over one hundred sherds of pottery,
much of it medieval coarse-ware and two rather enigmatic sherds of chert-tempered
early medieval pottery, presumed to be from the Blackdown Hills area. Such material
has very rarely been found in rural settings in northern Devon.
Discussion
The reports from 2012 add very little to archaeological knowledge of Torridge District.
Roughly a third of the reports concern buildings in urban settings and the vast majority
of the rural settings yielded little other than some sherds of North Devon coarse
ware. Perhaps the oddest report of all was on the closed Roman Catholic church in
Hartland, which was an adaptation of a 1960s temporary school classroom and from
which most of the fixtures and fittings had been removed before recording. An unusual
report was that on the river Torridge, near Bideford Long Bridge, where radiocarbon
dates and pollen analysis showed a similar picture of forest clearance and sedimentation
to that revealed by work at sites on the Barnstaple Western by-pass.
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