Thus some 16 sites were examined in 13 parishes. A total of 5 commercial organisations
were involved, with South West Archaeology producing 11 reports, AC Archaeology producing
2 reports and Hazel Riley, R W Parker Associates, and Wessex Archaeology producing
1 each. Unlike in Torridge only two of the proposed developments were for wind turbines
and in three cases no development was proposed. There was a greater diversity of
proposed development, probably indicating more economic activity in the district.
The other notable feature is that three sites are in Exmoor National Park.
Reports
1. Barnstaple: Joy Street – Green Lanes
The demolition of 22/23 Joy Street, on the corner of Green Lane, provided an opportunity
to carry out an archaeological investigation of a site in an important town centre
location. The significance of the location had been thoroughly described in the Heritage
Statement prepared by Wessex Archaeology that had accompanied the application to
develop the cleared site earlier in 2013 and is summarised in this report. The Society
had previously expressed its concern at the failure to secure the proper recording
of the building before demolition. The current report is an account of the findings
of the site investigation.
The evaluation consisted of the excavation of 3 trenches which provided an extensive
sample of the features within the site. The earliest identified remains consisted
of a possible mediaeval ditch which was aligned with the course of the mediaeval
town walls, a shallow ditch or wall footing, and a large stone built buttress structure.
No finds were recovered which were directly associated with these features, to enable
dating, but their location within the archaeological sequence indicates that a mediaeval
date is possible.
Later features included post-mediaeval brick built walls which were aligned with
the existing property boundaries, which were indicative of mediaeval burgage plots.
Evidence of post-mediaeval industrial activities, in the form of horn-working waste,
was revealed from finds in a rubbish pit in one of the trenches. Of the 77 pottery
sherds recovered from across the site, two were mediaeval and the remainder post-mediaeval.
The report recommended that the project archive should be deposited with the Museum
of Barnstaple and North Devon. It is disappointing that there were no dateable finds
from this site; it is unlikely that such a central location in the heart of Anglo-Saxon
Barnstaple will become available for excavation in the foreseeable future.
2. Berrynarbor: Stapleton Farm
This report presents the results of a survey at Stapleton farm, before the construction
of two small wind turbines. The site is located on the coastal ridge to the west
of Berry Down in an area where there are many archaeological features, particularly
Bronze Age barrows. It is an area of former open downland with enclosure taking place
early in the 19th century. The resulting rectilinear field pattern has been modified
in the 20th century. However no archaeological features were found on the site. The
visual impact of the turbines on the area was assessed as negative but minor.
3. Brayford: Brayford Primary School
This report represents probably the highlight of the year. It increases the known
extent of Roman-period iron-smelting in the Brayford area and demonstrates that evidence
for earlier occupation does survive within or below the slag heaps.
Brayford Primary School intended to construct a new terraced playing area to the
south of the main school building. A previous test pit had indicated the presence
of iron slag in a thin layer. A full excavation was carried out as a result.
The excavation revealed several linear features and a posthole concealed beneath
a spread of iron-smelting debris. The largest linear feature produced a mass of primary
smelting waste and a single sherd of Romano-British greyware. All the features are
likely to be of Roman date and represent some of the first features to produce securely
stratified Roman metalworking debris in the Brayford area. Three radiocarbon dates
were obtained, all of which returned a date of c75-225 cal AD.
Dr Lee Bray considers the smelting waste is consistent with its generation by metal-smelting
using a slag-tapping technology similar to that used elsewhere in Brayford and at
Sherracombe Ford 3.5km to the north-east on Exmoor. The recovery of a sherd of Exeter
Greyware provides an early 2nd century end to infilling of the linear feature, and
suggests a re-organisation of iron production in the vicinity, which coincides with
the start of smelting at Sherracombe Ford and Clatworthy.
A welcome feature of this excavation is that it took place in a school playground
and was readily available as an educational tool for the pupils and the wider community.
4. East Worlington: The Parish Hall
This report was sponsored by the Parish Hall Management Committee who wanted to know
more about the history of the building. It consists of a desk-based assessment and
a historic building survey.
The Parish Hall represents the early 20th century conversion of a possibly early
17th century threshing barn in the curtilage of the former East Worlington rectory,
now known as east Worlington House. The assessment takes the view that this house
was probably always associated with the church and is unlikely to have been the site
of a manorial dwelling.
The survey demonstrates that the six-bay barn was substantially refurbished on its
conversion to a parish hall, albeit in keeping with its original appearance and construction.
It is still a listed building.
5. Filleigh: Meadow Park Lodge, Castle Hill
Meadow Park Lodge stood at the road entrance at the end of the drive leading to Castle
Hill. Tragically it was subject to a fatal fire in 2012. A historic building assessment
was commissioned prior to its demolition.
The assessment confirmed that the Lodge was constructed in about 1845 as part of
a reorganisation of the landscape and remodelling of the house at Castle Hill. The
building comprised a main phase and two subsequent extensions. Its style was modelled
on the house at Castle Hill, including stucco banding over handmade brick and sandstone
detailing, including the window openings.
6. Georgeham: Putsborough Court
A desk-based assessment and historic building survey was commissioned by the owner
of Putsborough Court, who wished to know more of its history.
Putsborough Court, or Tuckers Farm as it was previously known, appears to be a building
of late mediaeval origin. The property remained a working farm until the Second World
War and was renamed Putsborough Court in about 1970. It is situated in the hamlet
of Putsborough, which was associated with the manor of Croyde. Putsborough itself
only seems to have acquired the name of “manor” in the post-mediaeval period. The
house appears to have originated as a small cross-passage dwelling possibly built
in the mid-16th century and has been much altered and extended since.
The report is worth reading for its account of the relationship between the manors
of Croyde and Georgeham and the reputed manor of Putsborough and of how a relatively
modest house can, through multiple changes of ownership, acquire an elevated status.
7. Ilfracombe: Old Maids’ Cottage, Lee
This is another example of a modest cottage acquiring a status way beyond its origins.
The Old Maids’ Cottage became famous through the Romantic tradition of Victorian
rusticism, fuelled by 19th century tourism. Its thatched charm was captured on postcards,
in a china model and even, reputedly, in a popular late Victorian song. There is
uncertainty as to which came first, the tradition of the three old maids and the
song that immortalised them or the association of the cottage with the tradition
and the song. In either case it became an early 20th century “icon”. The building
fell into disrepair at the end of the 20th century, before being acquired, modernised,
extended and (tastefully) restored.
The report was commissioned by the new owners as a requirement of planning permission
for the alterations and extensions to the listed building. Through a historic building
survey and watching brief it demonstrates that the building was originally a single-roomed
cottage built in the 17th or 18th century, and extended in the early 19th century.
In 1870 it was remodelled to accord with its picturesque associations, with further
20th century extensions, not always sympathetically designed or executed. The last
sentence of the report’s conclusions is worth quoting in full: “It has now been fully
repaired and restored as a holiday cottage, with a bright modern interior which would
no doubt have greatly astonished the Three Old Maids of Lee”.
8. Ilfracombe: The Old Quay Head
This is a sorry tale of how the demands of conserving the heritage can conflict with
the need to maintain the structural integrity of a Grade ll* listed sea defence!
The Old Quay Head was reputedly built in the 14th century by the Bourchier family
and refurbished in 1676, 1760, 1820 and 1870 to provide protection to the Inner Harbour
at Ilfracombe. Further protection was provided in the late 19th century by the construction
of the Pier, which also served as a landing for pleasure steamers. By the late 20th
century the high tides and stormy conditions associated with an exposed location
on the Bristol Channel coast had taken their toll of both structures. Part of the
later Pier was removed and a couple of attempts were made to strengthen the Old Quay
Head, within the constraints accorded by its listed status. These attempts soon failed
and a more radical approach to the protection of the structure had to be taken, comprising
the construction of a reinforced concrete wall faced with natural stone to support
the inner face of the existing quay wall. This report presents the findings of the
historic building recording and monitoring and recording of test pits undertaken
as part of the work.
The Old Quay Head has been patched and repaired so many times in its history that
the historic building recording could only observe the later, modern materials used
in repairs of the late 19th, 20th and early 21st centuries. One of the test pits
revealed an earlier wall parallel to the existing east (outer) wall of the structure.
There was a small assemblage of finds, with coal inclusions, suggesting a 19th century
backfill of an earlier repair. The earlier wall discovered in the test pit probably
dates from 1760 or 1820, rather than the 1676 structure that the Exeter Archaeology
report of 2001 discovered in a test pit. The report concludes that significant archaeological
phases are clearly preserved within the existing structure and consolidation and
preservation of it would further preserve the archaeological remains contained within.
9. Instow: St John’s Parish Church
This short report describes the monitoring of repairs to the south transept wall
and the excavation of a pipe trench to improve drainage; both were outside the church.
Two relatively late graves were discovered in the trench. Finds from the topsoil
and subsoil were mainly post-mediaeval, with only one sherd of mediaeval fine sandy
ware. Only a few pottery sherd finds have been retained.
10. Lynton & Lynmouth, Brendon and Exmoor Forest: Hoaroak Valley
This historic landscape study is centred on Hoaroak Cottage, Lynton, an abandoned
19th century farmstead now in the ownership of Exmoor National Park Authority. It
lies at the centre of the Hoaroak Valley, which contains a wealth of historic landscape
features from the late Neolithic onwards. The study area extends from The Chains
and Exe Plain in the south to Cheriton Ridge and the boundary of Furzehill Common
to the north.
Four Bronze Age round houses, an enclosure and several fields lie at the heart of
a newly discovered settlement complex on the west-facing slopes of Cheriton Ridge,
opposite Hoaroak Cottage. By about AD 1200 a hamlet of two farms was established
close to these prehistoric settlements. These farms worked two large blocks of fields,
growing arable crops and keeping livestock, until about AD 1400. Periodic cultivation
of these fields continued in the post-mediaeval period.
The later history of the area, and of Hoaroak Cottage itself, centres on its ownership
by the Vellacott and Knight families. The cottage is believed to have been built
in the late eighteenth century. Eventually it was acquired by the Fortescue Estate
and ultimately by the Exmoor National Park Authority, which has recently carried
out conservation work to consolidate the remains of the structure.
The aims of the study were:
To synthesise the results of a number of surveys and reports that have been carried
out on the Hoaroak Valley and
To place the historic structure of Hoaroak Cottage in its historic landscape context
A large scale survey and preliminary assessment of the newly discovered prehistoric
settlement also forms part of the study. The report concludes that the multi-period
settlement complex on Cheriton Ridge highlights the potential for the discovery of
new sites on Exmoor and emphasises the importance of Exmoor in the study of settlement
transition in the early mediaeval period. It ends with recommendations for further
study, particularly of this feature.
This is an important study that draws together many elements over a period of 4000
years in a single landscape unit on Exmoor.
11. Lynton & Lynmouth: Car park in the Valley of the Rocks
This short report describes monitoring and recording that took place during the re-grading
and extension of the car park in the Valley of the Rocks. Although the site lay in
an area of great archaeological potential, no features or deposits were discovered
and all finds were discarded.
12. Lynton & Lynmouth: Lower East Lyn
Another short report that summarises the historic building recording that was undertaken
during the lowering of the walls of a ruined outbuilding to make it safe. The buildings
origin and purpose are unclear but it is believed to be mediaeval or early post-mediaeval.
Major alterations first occurred in the 18th or early 19th century, when the building
seems to have been converted to a shippon. Further alterations led to its last use
as a cattle shed. No previously unrecorded features were discovered during the building
works.
13. South Molton: Hill Farm, Hill Village
This report into monitoring and recording prior to construction of a range of agricultural
buildings was required because the area was known to have potential for pre-historic
and mediaeval activity. In the event excavation by topsoil stripping and the digging
of four trenches revealed very little archaeology. The features uncovered included
post-mediaeval field drains, two pits and a ditch, the latter being undated. There
were few finds, mainly post mediaeval sherds and clay pipe stems; none were retained.
14. Swimbridge: West Stowford
This is another short report commissioned to monitor the excavation of a swimming
pool, in view of the proximity of the three surrounding early 16th century listed
houses. However, no archaeological features or deposits were found in the excavated
area.
15. Tawstock: Land off Old Torrington Road
This desk-based assessment was commissioned because residential development was intended
for the site and a previous development on the opposite side of Old Torrington Road
had yielded a large quantity of pottery, a significant proportion of which was 13th/14th
century.
Using available cartographic and documentary sources, the history of the two fields
was tracked, through their changes of ownership. Owners included the Bourchier and
Wrey families. The fields appeared to be relatively late enclosures of seasonally
water-logged moor and differed from the field pattern immediately to the west that
suggested an association with the mediaeval settlement of Brynsworthy.
Nevertheless, the report concludes that it is likely that Roundswell Farm and the
adjoining fields are of mediaeval rather than post-mediaeval origin and that “archaeological
features and artefacts of mediaeval date need not be unexpected”.
16. West Down: Land at Mullacott Cross Industrial Estate
This report is of a watching brief carried out during the groundworks for the construction
of a wind turbine. It was required as a condition of the planning permission as prehistoric
burial sites have been recorded on land immediately to the north east of the industrial
estate. However, no archaeological features or deposits were found and no artefacts
were recovered as a result of the excavation.
Discussion
These 16 reports had hugely varying outcomes; 5 of them yielded nothing of note,
some of the historic building surveys were able to summarise the histories of their
subjects, (the most interesting of which were probably East Worlington Parish Hall
and Putsborough Court) and 3 of the reports were of greater significance. The most
notable of these were the Hoaroak Valley historic landscape study and the excavation
of Roman period iron smelting at Brayford Primary School. Old Quay Head, Ilfracombe
is notable for its account of the difficulties of reconciling the conservation needs
of heritage structures with the sea defence requirements of an exposed coastal site.
The most disappointing outcome was the paucity of information yielded by the excavation
at Joy Street, Barnstaple.
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