DBA – Desk-based assessment; HBR/S – Historic building recording/survey
In 2010 17 site reports were posted in 12 parishes. A total of 5 commercial organisations
were involved, with South West Archaeology producing 10 reports, Martin Watts 3 reports
and AC Archaeology, Context One Archaeology and Exeter Archaeology 1 report each.
One other report was produced by the Exmoor National Park Authority Archaeologist.
1. Atherington: Rose Cottage
This report covers the investigation of a garden that is to be developed with a dwelling.
The desk-based assessment demonstrated that the site had been continuously occupied
since the late 18th century, with several structural and boundary changes in the
19th. The site investigation identified two linear features that were probably ditches
marking successive property boundaries. The line of the western boundary was mediaeval
in date and had continued in use to the present. Finds were mainly post-mediaeval
North Devon Ware.
2. Barnstaple: 26 Bear Street
This is a report of an extensive investigation of a site on the north side of Bear
Street. Bear Street was an important route leading out of Barnstaple eastwards. The
desk-based assessment showed that the site had been part of a larger area to the
north of Bear Street granted by Judhel for the founding of a Cluniac Priory. Urban
development began along Bear Street, outside the town walls in the mediaeval period,
but this was swept away during the Civil War. By 1830 development of the north side
had reached the site again, with two domestic properties occupying the site frontage.
Later in the 19th century the site was developed for a wool merchant and grain store.
The latter eventually occupied the whole of the site.
The building survey was able to put together a complex ten-phase sequence of development
of the commercial buildings. Remarkably a significant amount of grain-processing
machinery survived from this period. The trench evaluation yielded an impressive
amount of mediaeval and later pottery, suggesting earlier uses of the site that could
be explored further if another opportunity arose in the area.
3. Bratton Fleming: Dale Cottage
This is a short report of a watching brief carried out at this site in the middle
of Bratton Fleming, where soil was stripped in preparation for building a garage
to serve the cottage. The operation yielded mainly 18th and 19th century pottery
with a handful of post-mediaeval sherds. Dale Cottage itself is a low stone rubble
building that was probably two cottages originally.
4. Brayford: Gard’ Quarry
A monitoring and recording exercise was carried out on this field to the north of
Charles as a 2002 geophysical survey had identified the presence of a ring ditch,
probably representing the remains of a Bronze Age barrow. Two archaeological features
were exposed. The first was a pit which contained a single fill of silty clay with
fragments of charcoal. The second feature was a posthole with a single fill of silty
clay. A third feature that had been revealed was considered to be natural. No finds
were discovered and the two features were undated.
These results were considered to be consistent with the previous survey. The area
immediately to the north of Charles appears to have been relatively unoccupied, apart
from the Bronze Age barrows, compared to the known prehistoric and Roman period settlement
to the north-east nearer the top of the valley at Brayford.
5. Brayford: Hudley Mill, Charles
This report includes a document survey, description of the mill leat, pond, waterwheel
and mill building and a schedule of suggested repairs at Hudley Mill which had previously
been described in the 1989 and 1994 surveys of North Devon Watermills.
Documentary evidence suggests that Hudley Mill had served the parish since the beginning
of the 17th century. Most of the surviving fabric appears to be 19th century in date.
However, there is a suggestion that the mill might occupy the site of an older mediaeval
mill serving the manor of Charles.
The comprehensive description and schedule of repairs and maintenance form a sound
basis for the restoration and retention of this historic facility.
6. Brayford: Little Bray Lane
This short report describes the monitoring of topsoil stripping prior to the construction
of a dwelling. The site at Little Bray Lane is steeply sloping. No features were
revealed. Finds included pieces of abraded slag, a fragment of probable furnace lining
and two sherds of post-mediaeval North Devon ware. These are consistent with the
known iron working in the area.
7. Brendon: Hoccombe Combe
This is a record of a survey drawing made of a feature believed to be a burnt mound,
by a stream in a remote location on Brendon Common. It is the first burnt mound to
be discovered on Exmoor.
8. Burrington: Near Radar Station
Burrington Moor is a location where a number of prehistoric sites have been recorded,
hence the monitoring of a relatively simple operation, the repositioning of a field
entrance. Only a couple of features were observed, which seemed to be associated
with the construction and repair of the hedgebank that was being removed. No finds
were recovered.
9. Burrington: Southcott
Southcott is a late mediaeval farmhouse the mid-20th century roof of which was to
be completely replaced, in accordance with planning permission which required recording
of the original roof. The mid-20th century roof over-sailed the earlier roof as would
the proposed replacement, ensuring the retention and preservation of the earlier
structures. The central part of the historic roof comprises the remains of two smoke-blackened
trusses with associated purlins and rafters, which were considered to be the remnants
of jointed cruck trusses of 16th century origin and indicative of an open hall structure.
The roof structure of the rear extension probably dates from the 17th century and
the east end of the main roof was rebuilt in the late 19th century.
10. Combe Martin: Cormelles, Victoria Street
The watching brief was carried out during groundworks on the site, which is at the
rear of an existing dwelling and slopes down towards the River Umber towards the
eastern end of the historic core of the village. No archaeological features were
exposed and the finds were limited to clay pipe fragments and 18th/19th century pottery
sherds, principally of North Devon Coarseware.
11. Kentisbury: Higher Patchole Farm
The desk based study indicates that Patchole originated in the Saxon period and was
linked Sevenash and Trentishoe and held by the Raleigh family in the 13th/14th centuries.
In the late mediaeval period Patchole was separated from the other holdings and became
part of the manor of Kentisbury. Higher Patchole may have begun life as a freehold
tenement in the 17th century. From 1780 until the First World War it was in the ownership
of the Sloley family. The buildings survey revealed that the threshing barn was built
between 1650 and 1750, while the other barns were mainly 19th century, although one
or two may have replaced earlier buildings.
12. Kingsnympton: Steeple Meadow
Steeple Meadow lies on the eastern edge of the village and was to be developed for
houses. Evaluation trenches were excavated, totalling 115 m in length. Only two features
were found, one of which was interpreted as a tree throw and the other was a small
pit filled with clay-silt with abundant charcoal fragments. Finds were limited to
pottery fragments dating from the mediaeval period to the 19th century, as might
be expected in the ploughsoil of a field on the edge of a mediaeval village.
13. Landkey: Town Mills
This report gives a detailed description of the Town Mills building and waterwheel
in Landkey The site was included in two previous publications on watermills in North
Devon (Thorpe 1989 and U3A 1994). References to mills in Landkey are recorded as
far back as the 13th century. Town Mills is believed to have existed since the 17th
century but may have been earlier. The present mill was owned by the Darch family
for over a century and operated by them in conjunction with a bakery for eighty years.
The corn milling machinery was removed in the late 1940s and the wheel was used to
generate electricity until the 1980s. The external overshot wheel and sluice gates
have been maintained in working order. It was originally a two-wheeled mill, but
much of the building dates from the 19th century with 20th century alterations. There
is good photographic evidence of the buildings use as a mill and bakery from the
turn of the 20th century.
14. South Molton: Widgery Drive
The desk-based assessment of this site identified it as primarily lying outside the
mediaeval core of South Molton, with field boundaries that were well evidenced on
the tithe map and subsequent Ordnance Survey maps. The watching brief and excavations
verified this evidence with most of the identified features coinciding with post-mediaeval
field boundaries. Finds, mainly of North Devon Coarseware with some slipware and
clay pipe stems, tended to confirm the post-mediaeval and 19th century nature of
this occupation.
15. South Molton: The Old Gaol
The Old Gaol lies to the north of East Street and forms part of a complex of buildings
constructed between 1828 and 1838. The site would have formed part of the burgage
plots running northwards and the building may have straddled two such plots. It was
built as a more modern form of accommodation for prisoners and used for this purpose
for much of the middle part of the 19th century before being used for other purposes,
when a late 19th century Police Station was built elsewhere in town. The works of
conversion which were monitored as a result of the historic building recording have
done much to restore the building to nearer its original condition and to conserve
it.
16. Tawstock: Old Torrington Road
Although the topsoil had largely been stripped from this development site before
the watching brief could be undertaken. One feature and a number of finds were identified.
The feature was a ditch that was probably associated with a former field boundary.
The fill yielded a number of finds, mainly post-mediaeval in nature but including
some 13th/14th century residual sherds of North Devon ware. The topsoil revealed
a larger number of finds, with a significant quantity of mediaeval North Devon ware,
indicating that Roundswell Farm was a mediaeval foundation rather than a post-mediaeval
farmstead. No evidence was found for the outworks or entrance of the cropmark enclosure
that had previously been identified to the west of the site.
17. Tawstock: St Peter’ Church
This report records the monitoring of the rebuilding of a partially collapsed section
of the graveyard wall. The features and finds exposed seemed to relate to previous
rebuilding phases at the site.
Discussion
This year’ reports yielded little that was new in archaeological terms, apart from
the burnt mound on Brendon Common. There were however, a number of interesting and
valuable historic building surveys, including two watermills. The most extensive
and revealing of these surveys was at the former Maldram & Jones corn merchant site
in Bear Street, Barnstaple, where the report also suggested the possibility of further
work in this area which was formerly occupied by the Cluniac Priory.
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