Details

The monument includes a small irregular aggregate field system incorporating a
single stone hut circle, situated near a hut circle settlement, enclosure and
other scattered hut circles and field boundaries in the broad valley between
Kilmar Tor and Hawk's Tor, part of Twelve Men's Moor on eastern Bodmin Moor.
The irregular aggregate field system is visible as four large field plots, of
0.23-0.45 hectares, plus a much smaller plot of 0.035 hectares, each defined
by heaped rubble boundary walls, up to 2.5m wide and 0.6m high. Occasional
edge-set facing slabs, up to 0.5m high, are visible in the sides of the walls.
Soil washed down the hill-slope and some subsequent peat growth since the
monument's construction have caused considerable build-up of deposits against
the uphill, southern, side of many boundaries, almost masking that side in
places. Three ovoid field plots form a SSE-NNW row along the western side of
the field system, their shapes indicating their successive creation
originating with the plot at the SSE. An almost square field plot adjoins the
NE boundaries of this row and was the last large plot in the field system to
be created. The stone hut circle is situated at the SE corner of the square
plot, and survives with a circular wall of heaped rubble, up to 1.75m wide and
0.5m high, around a internal area 8m in diameter, levelled into the hillslope.
A 0.5m wide entrance gap in the NNE sector of its wall opens into the very
small, sub-rectangular, field plot which projects east from the hut circle and
the SE corner of the larger square field plot. Early post-medieval re-use of
this area for small scale stone extraction is indicated by the presence of an
unfinished millstone rough-out situated near the northern edge of the
southernmost ovoid field.

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. Irregular aggregate field systems are one
of several methods of field layout known to have been employed in south-west
England from the Bronze Age to the Roman period (c.2000 BC-AD 400). They
comprise a collection of field plots, generally lacking conformity of
orientation and arrangement, containing fields with sinuous outlines and
varying shapes and sizes, bounded by stone or rubble walls or banks, ditches
or fences. They are often located around or near ceremonial and funerary
monuments. They are an important element of the existing landscape and are
representative of farming practice over a long period. A substantial
proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of protection.

The irregular aggregate field system on Twelve Men's Moor has survived well,
with no evident, or recorded, disturbance and preserving evidence for its
developmental sequence. The substantial soil deposits washed down the
hillslope since its construction will preserve contemporary land surfaces and
environmental deposits. The proximity of the monument to other broadly
contemporary field systems and hut circles demonstrates well the nature of
settlement and agricultural practices during the Bronze Age.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
consulted 6/1992, Carter, A./RCHME, 1:2500 AP transcription for SX 2575,
consulted 9/1991, Carter, A./RCHME, 1:2500 AP transcriptions for SX 2475 & 2575,
consulted 9/1991, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1014,
consulted 9/1991, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1173,
consulted 9/1991, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1190,

Source: Historic England