Details

The monument includes two adjacent prehistoric coaxial field systems on East
Moor and Ridge hill on eastern Bodmin Moor. The coaxial field systems
incorporate six broadly contemporary regular aggregate field systems
containing 19 stone hut circles. A further nine hut circles are dispersed
throughout the coaxial field systems, including two situated within an
enclosure at the monument's eastern edge. A second enclosure further north
along the monument's eastern edge contains six of the nine house platforms
forming a small prehistoric settlement. The coaxial field systems also
incorporate four prehistoric cairns and six medieval clearance cairns. The
monument also includes medieval enclosures, field systems and cultivation
ridges overlying parts of the coaxial field systems while at its southern edge
several of the prehistoric coaxial boundaries are overlain by modern field
boundaries. Post-medieval features within the monument include part of a row
of parish boundary slabs, two peat stack platforms, a herdsman's shelter and a
small memorial cross.

The coaxial field systems survive as a series of near-parallel heaped-rubble
walls, up to 150m apart, running from the periphery of East Moor towards its
interior where a terminal boundary crosses their ends at approximate right-
angles. Few cross-walls link the parallel walls below the terminal boundary
except in discrete sectors infilled by areas of regular aggregate field
system. The prehistoric field system walls survive up to 2m wide and 0.6m
high, incorporating edge- and end-set slabs up to 0.75m high. Beyond the
present moorland edge, relatively recent clearance has removed most surface
evidence for the prehistoric field systems except along parts of the
monument's southern, eastern and north western edges.

The East Moor field system is visible over 2.9km along the entire north
eastern periphery of East Moor, including two major breaks due to recent
enclosure and clearance. This monument includes only the 1.7km length visible
to the south east of these major breaks, the other surviving parts being
included in other monuments. The parallel boundaries of this field system
share a north east-south west axis, running downslope from a WNW-ESE terminal
boundary along the north eastern crest of the moor's plateau. Its layout and
boundary details show successive phases in the prehistoric development of this
field system across and along the hillside.

This monument contains four areas of the East Moor coaxial field system
infilled by regular aggregate field systems, variously encompassing 0.95ha -
1.7ha. Each regular system contains up to ten polygonal field plots, of 0.04ha
- 0.4ha each, with some boundaries conforming to the coaxial system's
alignment, though none are entirely dictated by that parallel axis. Three of
the regular field systems are situated 170m - 250m apart, well below the level
of the terminal boundary in the north western half of the monument; the fourth
is located towards the south eastern part of the system near its junction with
the Ridge coaxial system.

These regular field systems contain one to four stone hut circles each,
surviving with heaped-rubble walls, up to 2m wide and 1m high, defining
levelled circular internal areas ranging from 5.5m to 10.3m in diameter. Most
of their walls incorporate inner and outer facing slabs. Entrance gaps are
visible in three hut circles, facing between south and south east. The
monument contains a further seven hut circles, similarly constructed,
dispersed throughout the East Moor field system. These range from 5m to 9m in
internal diameter but some walling was partly robbed of stone during medieval
cultivation. Entrances are visible in two, facing south. Six of these hut
circles are located near, and immediately below, the terminal boundary; the
other adjoins the outer side of the terminal boundary near a drove-way and is
embellished by a concentric annexe on two sides.

The Ridge coaxial field system extends 1.2km south west from the south eastern
sector of the East Moor system's terminal boundary encompassing almost all of
Ridge hill. It is organised similarly to the field system on East Moor but
with parallel boundaries orientated north east-south west, passing over the
top of Ridge hill to meet a north east-south west terminal boundary on the
hill's north western slope. Its boundaries and layout also denote successive
prehistoric phases in this field system's construction. Five coaxial
boundaries in the southern sector of the Ridge system are partly overlain by
modern field banks which preserve their alignments and courses. The south
western half of the Ridge system also contains scattered, discontinuous traces
of slight rubble walling from an earlier, and largely dismantled, prehistoric
field system. The Ridge coaxial system contains two areas infilled by regular
aggregate field systems. The largest encompasses over 7.5ha, surviving for
630m south west-north east and spanning six coaxial boundaries as a broad
strip up to 160m wide on the south east facing lower slope of Ridge hill. A
medieval field system and clearance overlapping its visible eastern sector,
and modern enclosure and clearance to its immediate west and south, partly
mask its original extent. This regular system is strongly influenced by the
coaxial boundaries, with cross-walls linking successive coaxial walls to form
rectilinear blocks of up to 1.5ha, each block then being subdivided by a grid-
pattern of rubble walls to form plots of up to 0.04ha - 0.3ha. This regular
system incorporates 11 hut circles similar to those in the East Moor regular
systems but ranging from 3m to 7.5m in internal diameter. Seven hut circles
have visible entrance gaps, showing no consistent orientation. The hut circles
are spaced along a nearly straight line running the length of the regular
field system, built on or near the field system's cross-walls.

The other regular field system infill, at the north eastern edge of the Ridge
system, has survived modern clearance over only 0.1ha, retaining only one
cross-wall linking coaxial boundaries and a single rectangular plot of 0.06ha.
The Ridge coaxial system contains one other hut circle, built into an earlier
funerary cairn behind the terminal boundary. This ovoid cairn has a rubble
mound measuring 8m east-west by 6.5m north-south and rises to 0.6m high. The
hut circle is centred east of the cairn's centre, with an internal diameter of
4m and a south east facing entrance gap in rubble walls generally 1.4m wide;
on the western side, the cairn mound extends up to 3.25m beyond the hut
circle's inner edge.

At the surviving south eastern end of the north west-south east junction
between the East Moor and Ridge coaxial field systems, a large sub-circular
prehistoric enclosure extends into and narrows a prehistoric drove-way
following the course of that junction, directly opposite the fragmentary
regular field system of the Ridge coaxial system. The enclosure survives with
a rubble and boulder wall, up to 2.5m wide and 1m high, defining an internal
area measuring 53m north-south by 44m east-west. A modern field bank overlies
the south western third of the enclosure wall. The enclosure's western sector
contains two adjoining hut circles, each 8m in internal diameter, levelled
into the hillslope, with rubble walling, up to 2.5m wide and 1.3m high, whose
north eastern sector encompasses both hut circles in an even curve.

A second enclosure is situated 300m to the NNW and survives with a boulder and
rubble wall, up to 1.5m wide and 0.6m high, defining an ovoid internal area
measuring 40m east-west by 65m north-south. Within the enclosure are six
house platforms, visible as turf-covered sub-circular areas, each up to 8m in
diameter and levelled both by cutting into the hillslope on their uphill edges
and by using the resulting rubble to terrace their surfaces out on the
downhill side. A further three similar house platforms, measuring up to 15m
by 11m, are situated beyond the enclosure in the 0.25ha area adjacent to
its north west side.

The Ridge coaxial field system incorporates two of the monument's four
prehistoric funerary cairns. The smaller cairn, containing a later hut circle,
is described above. The other, known as the Ridge Cairn, is situated between
two coaxial boundaries, 100m ENE of the summit of Ridge hill. It survives as a
mound of heaped rubble, 22.7m in diameter and up to 1.3m high. Stone robbing
and partial excavation in the 19th century revealed a central slab over a
cremation burial, surrounded by concentric rings of slabs in the cairn's
mound, two of which, respectively 17m and 10m in diameter, remain visible in
the mound surface. The mound's central rubble has been largely cleared to
ground level within a recent drystone-walled shelter which reuses part of the
inner ring for its wall-base.

A third round cairn, the Clitters Cairn, is located on the highest point along
the north eastern scarp of East Moor, 400m north west of the Ridge Cairn. The
cairn survives as a mound of heaped rubble, 15m in diameter and up to 1.4m
high. An antiquarian excavation produced a central hollow 5m in diameter and
up to 1m deep. The East Moor coaxial system's terminal boundary incorporates
and changes angle on the cairn. Limited excavation in 1976 at its north
western junction with the terminal boundary showed the cairn was constructed
earlier, revealed coursed slabs about part of the cairn's perimeter and
located a small burnt area 1m beyond the cairn's north west edge. Flint and
stone artefacts were also recovered. Pollen analysis demonstrated the cairn
to have been constructed directly on a surface of uncultivated grassland.
The fourth prehistoric round cairn is also incorporated into the East Moor
coaxial system's terminal boundary, 560m north west of the Clitters Cairn, and
again the terminal boundary changes angle on the cairn. This cairn survives
with a mound of heaped rubble 4m in diameter and 0.3m high, with a central
hollow, 1m in diameter and 0.1m deep, from an antiquarian excavation.
Seven further cairns are spaced 15m - 125m apart over a limited sector of the
north eastern slope of East Moor, from 60m north of Clitters Cairn. These
cairns survive as small mounds of heaped rubble, ranging from 3m in diameter
and 0.3m high to 9m in diameter and 0.75m high. All occur near the south
eastern edge of an area of medieval cultivation ridging overlying and partly
disrupting the prehistoric coaxial system and are considered to derive from
medieval surface-stone gathering.

Medieval exploitation both reused the monument's prehistoric boundaries and
created new features. Medieval cultivation ridges, 2m-3m wide and up to 0.2m
high, extend over 25ha in the central part of the East Moor field system,
generally sharing the north east-south west orientation of the coaxial field
system, reusing the prehistoric boundaries for internal subdivisions and
ending on the prehistoric terminal boundary, but partially disrupting some
boundaries and hut circles within their area. Small areas of similar ridging,
each under 0.25ha, also respect prehistoric walls in the easternmost regular
field system infill in this coaxial system. Medieval cultivation ridges on an
ENE-WSW alignment, traversed by medieval and later hollowed route-ways, cross
the sector between the eastern prehistoric regular field system and the
northern of the prehistoric enclosures. This sector is bounded to the north by
earthen medieval field banks which partly conform with the alignment of the
East Moor coaxial field system and which survive up to 1.5m wide and 0.6m
high, with outer ditches up to 0.75m wide and 0.4m deep.

By contrast, medieval ridging in the Ridge coaxial system is contained within
large medieval enclosures and fields bounded by earth-and-rubble banks up to
3m wide and 0.7m high, with outer ditches up to 2m wide and 0.2m deep. A sub-
rectangular enclosure of 6.5ha, with traces of ENE-WSW ridging, overlies the
north eastern edge of the Ridge coaxial system. A second enclosure of 10.5ha,
containing north east-south west ridging, is situated at the south western
end of the Ridge coaxial system and reuses part of a coaxial boundary as its
north east side. At the south eastern edge of the coaxial system's central
sector, medieval banks define two large fields of 4.5ha each, created
successively north eastwards from the area of modern enclosed land to the
west. Subdividing banks in these fields largely conform with the lines of the
prehistoric coaxial system and its regular field system infill overlain by
these medieval fields. The ridging in these fields also mostly follows the
north west-south east axis of the coaxial boundaries.

Evidence for post-medieval activities in the monument includes a small
herdsman's shelter on the eastern slope of Ridge hill; a row of end-set slabs,
38m-95m apart, marking the boundary between North Hill and Altarnun parishes;
two small rectilinear platforms, called peat stack platforms, near the north
western edge of the monument where cut peat was stored, each defined by a
slight ditch and outer bank and measuring up to 6.5m by 5m externally, and a
small granite memorial cross near the centre of the south east facing slope of
Ridge hill.

Complementary to the surface remains, extensive environmental analysis
throughout this monument during the 1970s indicated prehistoric woodland
clearance producing grassland prior to the Bronze Age construction of the
Clitters Cairn. Leaching of soil minerals, underway by the time the cairn was
constructed, led to the establishment of a grassland heath vegetation.

Evidence was recovered for a possible prehistoric cultivation phase and for
areas of short-lived and longer-term medieval cultivation.

All modern post and wire fences, gates and gate fittings, stock feeding
troughs and the Bowhayland and Tolcarne Farm leats are excluded from the
scheduling but the ground beneath them, including hedge banks, is included.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Bodmin Moor, the largest of the Cornish granite uplands, has long been
recognised to have exceptional preservation of archaeological remains. The
Moor has been the subject of detailed archaeological survey and is one of the
best recorded upland landscapes in England. The extensive relict landscapes of
prehistoric, medieval and post-medieval date provide direct evidence for human
exploitation of the Moor from the earliest prehistoric period onwards. The
well-preserved and often visible relationship between settlement sites, field
systems, ceremonial and funerary monuments as well as later industrial remains
provides significant insights into successive changes in the pattern of land
use through time.

Elaborate complexes of fields and field boundaries are a major feature of the
moor landscape. Coaxial field systems are one of several methods of land
division employed during the Bronze Age. Evidence from nearby Dartmoor, where
they are more common, indicates their introduction about 1700 BC and their
continued use until about 1000 BC. They consist of linear stone banks forming
parallel boundaries running upslope to meet similar boundaries which run along
the contours of higher slopes, thereby separating the lower enclosed fields
from the open grazing grounds of the higher moor. The long strips formed by
the parallel boundaries may be subdivided by cross-banks to form a series of
rectangular field plots, each sharing a common long axis.

Coaxial field systems frequently incorporate discrete areas subdivided by
other forms of field systems and various enclosures, some of which may be
shown to have been laid out prior to the construction of the coaxial system.
Regular aggregate field systems are one such form, comprising a collection of
field plots defined by boundaries laid out in a consistent manner and meeting
at approximate right-angles to each other. Enclosures are discrete plots of
land defined by stone walls or banks of stone and earth, constructed as stock
pens or as protected areas for crop growing. They were sometimes subdivided
to accommodate animal shelters and hut circles. The size and form of
enclosures varies considerably depending on their particular function.
Broadly contemporary occupation sites comprising stone hut circles, sometimes
grouped to form hut circle settlements, may be found within coaxial field
systems, both dispersed throughout their area and in close association with
their discrete areas of field-plot subdivision. Stone hut circles were the
dwelling places of prehistoric farmers on the moor and consist of low walls or
banks enclosing a circular floor area; remains of a turf or thatch roof are
not preserved. House platforms were another form of occupation site, of which
examples are known in upland areas from the Neolithic to the Roman periods
(from c.3000 BC to c.AD 400). They consist of levelled areas, variously
circular, ovoid or sub-rectangular in shape, on which rectangular or circular
timber buildings were constructed. The timber uprights forming the buildings
frameworks have not survived but excavations have revealed their postholes
and associated domestic debris. House platforms may occur singly or in
groups, in the open or enclosed by a boulder and rubble wall.

Coaxial field systems may also incorporate earlier and broadly contemporary
funerary monuments, including round cairns. Round cairns covered single or
multiple burials and were constructed as mounds of earth and stone rubble up
to 40m in external diameter but usually much smaller; a kerb of edge-set
stones sometimes bounds the edge of the mound. Burials were placed in small
pits, or on occasion within a box-like structure of stone slabs called a
cist, set into the old ground surface or dug into the body of the cairn.
Round cairns can occur as isolated monuments, in small groups or in larger
cemeteries.

The reuse of parts of some coaxial field systems during the medieval (c.AD 400
- 1550) and post-medieval periods may result in a variety of earthworks
and structures of these later dates overlying the prehistoric field systems
and their contained features. Such later activity is often agricultural,
resulting in cultivation ridging, field boundaries and enclosures, together
(sometimes) with remains of farm buildings that serviced this activity.
Coaxial field systems are highly representative of their period and form an
important element in the existing landscape where they occur. Their
relationships with other monument types within and beyond their boundaries
provide important information on the nature and development of land use and
farming practices among prehistoric communities.

The adjoining coaxial field systems on East Moor and Ridge hill have survived
well, containing a diversity of broadly contemporary internal arrangements and
settlement sites and preserving unusual evidence for the nature and sequence
of their development across and along these hillsides. The intact survival in
the monument of a junction between two adjoining coaxial field systems is
rare.

Coaxial field systems are uncommon on Bodmin Moor, the examples included in
this scheduling forming by far the largest and best preserved area of coaxial
field system to have survived west of Dartmoor. The integration of the coaxial
field systems in this monument with the other forms of broadly contemporary
field system about the periphery of Bodmin Moor is a unique relationship,
differing markedly from the dominance of coaxial field systems and closely
related linear boundaries about the periphery of Dartmoor. The incorporation
of earlier funerary cairns into the coaxial field systems and the rare reuse
of one cairn to construct a hut circle demonstrates major changes in land use
during the prehistoric period, with finer developments evident from the
internal arrangements of the coaxial field systems themselves. This unusually
detailed surviving evidence for successive phases in land use and organisation
is carried through to the post-medieval period by the medieval and later
cultivation ridging, field boundaries, peat stack platforms, herdsman's
shelter and parish boundary markers.

The monument's prehistoric and medieval features have been subject to recent
detailed air and ground survey. In addition, the extensive and published
environmental sampling at the monument and the published limited excavation
about the Clitters Cairn in the 1970s provide an unusually good range of
available archaeological data about this monument, which has consequently
received frequent mention in published articles on coaxial field systems.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Fleming, A, The Dartmoor Reaves, (1988)
Sharpe, A, The Minions Area Archaeological Survey and Management (Volume 2), (1989)
Brisbane, M, Clews, S, 'Cornish Archaeology' in The East Moor Systems, Altarnun and North Hill, Bodmin Moor, (1979), 33-56
Brisbane, M, Clews, S, 'Cornish Archaeology' in The East Moor Systems, Altarnun and North Hill, Bodmin Moor, (1979)
King, G, Sheppard, P, 'Cornish Archaeology' in Parochial Checklist of Antiquities 10: Parish of North Hill, (1979), 128-132
King, G, Sheppard, P, 'Cornish Archaeology' in Parochial Checklist of Antiquities 10: Parish of North Hill, (1979)
Trahair, J E R, 'Cornish Archaeology' in A survey of cairns on Bodmin Moor, , Vol. 17, (1978)
Other
AM7 scheduling documentation for CO 398,
CAU/RCHME, The Bodmin Moor Survey, Unpubl. draft text consulted 1993
consulted 1992, AM7 & AM 107 documentation for CO 398 (A),
consulted 1992, Carter, A./Quinnell, N.V./RCHME, 1:2500 AP transcription and field trace for SX 2377,
consulted 1992, Carter, A./Quinnell, N.V./RCHME, 1:2500 AP transcription and field trace for SX 2378 & SX 2478,
consulted 1992, Carter, A./Quinnell, N.V./RCHME, 1:2500 AP transcription and field trace for SX 2378,
consulted 1992, Carter, A./Quinnell, N.V./RCHME, 1:2500 AP transcription and field trace for SX 2477 & SX 2478,
consulted 1992, Carter, A./Quinnell, N.V./RCHME, 1:2500 AP transcription and field trace for SX 2477,
consulted 1992, Carter, A./Quinnell, N.V./RCHME, 1:2500 AP transcription and field trace for SX 2478,
consulted 1992, Carter, A./Quinnell, N.V./RCHME, 1:2500 AP transcriptions and field traces for SX 2377-8; SX 2477-8, (1983)
consulted 1992, Carter, A./RCHME, 1:2500 AP transcription for SX 2377,
Consulted 1992, Carter, A/Quinnell, N V/Fletcher, M J, 1:2500 AP transcription and field trace for SX 2378,
Consulted 1992, Carter, A/Quinnell, N V/Fletcher, M J, 1:2500 AP transcription and field trace for SX 2478,
Consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entries for PRN 1037 & 1037.1,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entries for PRN 1141; 1141.2 & 1148.1,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1020,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1020.01,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1020.02,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1020.03,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1020.04,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1020.05,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1020.06,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1020.07,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1020.08,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1021,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1022,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1023,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1023.01,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1023.02,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1024.01,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1024.02,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1024.03,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1024.04,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1024.05,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1025,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1026,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1027,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1027.01,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1027.02,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1029.1,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1029.2,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1029.3,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1029.4,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1029.5,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1029.8,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1032,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1035,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1037,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1037.01,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1059,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1141.1 & 1148,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1141.1,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1141.2,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1143.1 & 1143.2,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1143.3,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1143.4,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 12082,
consulted 1992, Cornwall SMR entry for SX 27 NW 85 & PRN 1142,
consulted 4/1992, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1030,
Mercer, R.J., AM7 Scheduling document for CO 879, 1972, File No. AA 75279
Mercer, R.J., AM7 scheduling documentation for CO 877, consulted 1992
Mercer, R.J., AM7 scheduling documentation for CO 878, 1972,
Mercer, R.J., AM7 scheduling documentation for CO 879 A, 1972,
Mr Venning, Trekernell Farm, Lewannick, Information spoken to MPP field worker on 28/01/1992,
Mrs Smith of Treburland Farm, Altarnun, Information spoken to MPPFW, 08/05/1992, (1992)
p. 392; PRN 12069, Halvana Mine, Cornwall Arch. Unit, Bodmin Moor, Cornwall. An evaluation for the MPP, (1990)
Title: 1:10000 Ordnance Survey Map, sheet SX 27 NW
Source Date: 1984
Author:
Publisher:
Surveyor:

Title: 1:25000 Ordnance Survey Map, "Pathfinder 1339", SX27/37
Source Date: 1988
Author:
Publisher:
Surveyor:

Title: 1:25000 Ordnance Survey Map; SX 27 (Bodmin Moor (East))
Source Date: 1963
Author:
Publisher:
Surveyor:

Source: Historic England