Details

The monument includes a deserted medieval settlement situated on the western
side of a broad ridge extending north from the north-west edge of Craddock
Moor on south-east Bodmin Moor.
The deserted medieval settlement is visible as a discrete collection of
largely turf-covered, drystone rubble walls within a sub-rectangular area
measuring up to 55m NW-SE by 48m NE-SW, covering 0.16 hectares. The walls
survive up to 2m wide and 1m high, though are generally about 1m wide and 0.5m
high. Some coursed-rubble walling and edge-set facing slabs, up to 0.9m high,
are exposed through the walls' turf cover. Within the settlement, the walls
define the lower courses of at least three elongated rectangular farm-houses,
of a type known as long-houses, and six smaller rectangular ancillary
buildings, all of these structures having a WSW-ENE long axis, running
directly downslope.
The northern long-house is located across the centre of the settlement's
northern half and measures 15m WSW-ENE by 3m wide internally. A 1m wide break
in the long side-walls, 6m before the WSW end, marks the site of a
cross-passage separating the domestic quarters at the higher, ENE end of the
long-house, from the cattle byre or shippon at the lower WSW end. The domestic
quarters are themselves subdivided by a cross-wall to give two rooms, each 3m
wide; that at the ENE end is 3m long while the room to its west is 3.5m long.
The latter room also has an entrance gap 1m wide in the east side of its
northern wall.
Two ancillary buildings are located to the north and two to the south of this
northern long-house; one is situated 1m north of the long-house's domestic
quarters and measures 9m by 4m internally; the other, at the northern edge of
the settlement, is located 12m north-west of the long-house's cross-passage
and measures 7m by 3m internally. South of the long-house, a long building
measuring 13m by 3.5m internally is situated 1m beyond the southern wall of
the long-house's domestic quarters, and extends 3m further east. Another
ancillary building, measuring 7m by 3.5m internally, is similarly located
south of the long-house's shippon.
A second long-house is situated at the eastern edge of the settlement, centred
20m south-east of the northern long-house. It is constructed and subdivided in
a similar manner to the northern long-house and measures 19m WSW-ENE by 3m
wide. The surviving eastern wall of the cross passage is 6m before the WSW end
and the domestic quarters are subdivided into two rooms, each 3m wide; the ENE
room is 3.75m long, that to its west is 5m long.
The third long-house is centred a further 25m to the south-west, along the
southern edge of the settlement. Also of similar construction to the other two
long-houses, it survives with total internal measurements of 23m WSW-ENE by
2.5m wide, however, the walling at both ends has been partly disrupted by
recent clearance. The eastern wall of the cross-passage is 8.5m east of the
WSW end, with gaps in the side walls indicating the cross-passage width of
1.3m. Within the domestic quarters of the long-house, at its ENE end,
substantial side-walls, incorporating upright slabs up to 0.9m high, define a
room 5m long in the western sector. However, to the east of this, slight
surface traces of walling, confirmed on air photographs, indicate that the ENE
end of the long-house formerly extended for a further 5m. Slight rubble walls
of a sub-rectangular extension, 6m WSW-ENE by 3m wide internally, are built
against, and centred on, the northern end of the cross-passage.
Two further ancillary buildings are visible; a small structure, 3m square
internally, is situated midway between the southern and eastern long-houses
while a sub-rectangular building, 9m WSW-ENE by 4m wide internally, is
situated 10m north-west of the southern long-house's shippon.
The settlement also contains a turf-covered hollowed trackway, up to 5m wide
and 0.3m deep, which enters the eastern edge of the settlement along the
southern side of the eastern long-house, then curves north-west around the
long-house's western end and terminates at the southern side of the northern
long-house after passing between the two ancillary buildings immediately to
its south. Beyond this monument, to the ENE, intermittent traces of this
hollowed trackway survive beyond the settlement following a direct route over
50m to the narrow, downslope, end of a droveway between medieval field plots
surviving beyond the modern limit of improved pasture.
The surface appearance of the settlement shows the effects of more recent
activity; some rubble cleared from the surrounding modern fields has been
deposited over the medieval walling along the periphery of the settlement
while a modern drystone field wall bisects the settlement on an ENE-WSW axis,
overlying northern walls of the eastern long-house and the ancillary building
to the north-west of the southern long-house.
Beyond this monument, from 50m to the east, are extensive medieval field
systems which are related by the hollowed trackway with the occupation of this
deserted settlement and which themselves partly re-use the walling of the
extensive prehistoric field systems and settlement sites on north-west
Craddock Moor.

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. Over 30 deserted settlements retaining visible remains of
medieval character are recorded on Bodmin Moor. Some of these are single
abandoned farms but the majority are small hamlets containing between two and
six farmhouses. Documentary evidence indicates that most of such settlements
on the Moor were established between the 11th and mid-14th centuries AD.
Although many of these settlements were deserted by the close of the medieval
period, some were abandoned at a later period. Deserted medieval settlements
are often visible as close groupings of small buildings, each containing a
long house, its ancillary buildings and one or more adjacent small plots which
served as kitchen gardens or stock pens. These components are arranged within
the settlement around internal yards and trackways which led from the
settlement to its associated fields, pasture and water supply. Occasionally
such trackways show evidence for cobbling or paving. Long houses were the
dominant type of farmhouse in upland settlements of south-west England between
the 10th and 16th centuries. Rectangular in plan, usually with rubble or
boulder outer walls and their long axis orientated downslope, the interiors of
long houses were divided into two separate functional areas, an upslope
domestic room and a downslope stock byre, known in south-west England as a
shippon. The proportions of the plan occupied by the domestic room and the
shippon vary considerably but the division between the two was usually
provided by a cross passage of timber screens or rubble walling running
transversely through the long house, linking opposed openings in the long side
walls. Ancillary buildings are generally separated from the farmhouse itself,
or else appear as outshuts attached to the long house and often extending one
end. These additional structures served as barns, fuel or equipment stores and
occasionally contained ovens and corn-drying kilns. While many settlements in
Cornwall are known from documentary sources to be of medieval origin, well-
preserved deserted sites are rare. Consequently those on Bodmin Moor provide
the main surviving source of evidence for the distinctive form and layout of
Cornish medieval settlements.

This deserted medieval long-house settlement on Craddock Moor has survived
well. Some overburden of cleared surface stone from the neighbouring
fields and the modern hedgebank, affects only limited parts of the
settlement's periphery and the walls survive intact beneath; only in minor
sectors of the periphery does the clearance impinge on the walling itself.
This settlement shows clearly its internal organisation and displays a
diversity of ancillary structures. In its number of long-houses and ancillary
buildings, this settlement is one of the four largest medieval deserted
settlements on Bodmin Moor. The proximity of this monument to broadly
contemporary field systems, with which the settlement's hollowed trackway
provides a physical link, demonstrates well the nature of farming practices
during the medieval period. The monument's proximity to the prehistoric
settlements and field systems on Craddock Moor, partly re-used by this
medieval settlement's field boundaries, provides good evidence for the
development of domestic and agricultural organisation from the prehistoric to
the medieval period.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
consulted 1993, Carter, A./Fletcher, M.J./RCHME, 1:2500 AP plots and field traces for SX 2472-3,
consulted 1993, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1241 & 1289,
consulted 1993, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1290,
consulted 1993, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1362,

Source: Historic England