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Enclosure with hut circles north of Bala Brook intake

A Scheduled Monument in South Brent, Devon

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Coordinates

Latitude: 50.4516 / 50°27'5"N

Longitude: -3.8726 / 3°52'21"W

OS Eastings: 267152.070316

OS Northings: 62982.843064

OS Grid: SX671629

Mapcode National: GBR QB.6T3T

Mapcode Global: FRA 27SV.M44

Entry Name: Enclosure with hut circles north of Bala Brook intake

Scheduled Date: 4 December 1957

Last Amended: 17 December 1991

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1012776

English Heritage Legacy ID: 10579

County: Devon

Civil Parish: South Brent

Traditional County: Devon

Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Devon

Church of England Parish: South Brent St Petroc

Church of England Diocese: Exeter

Details

Low stone walls or banks enclosing a circular internal floor area from the
remains of timber and turf-or thatch-roofed dwellings occupied by farmers of
the prehistoric period. They may occur singly or in larger groups and were
sometimes built within a surrounding boundary bank or enclosure. On Dartmoor,
the long tradition of building stone-based round houses can be traced back to
the second millennium BC, probably from 1700 BC onwards. This enclosure lies
above the north bank of Bala Brook, close to another and to two conjoined hut
circles which lie between the enclosures. The enclosure is roughly semi-
circular in shape and is c.0.75ha in area. The wall, incorporating some large
boulders, is up to 0.75m in height and up to 4m in width, it narrows along the
straighter, incomplete side above the stream bank. There are possible
entrances at the north-west and south-east and ten hut circles in the
enclosure, which is cut by the water intake fence. The huts are up to 12m in
diameter with walls up to a metre in height and 2m in thickness, they have
entrances on the west or north-west side and some are set into the slope. A
tinner's cache has been built into one of the western huts.

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

Dartmoor is the largest expanse of open moorland in Southern Britain and
because of exceptional conditions of preservation, it is also one of the
most complete examples of an upland relict landscape in the whole country.
The great wealth and diversity of archaeological remains provides direct
evidence for human exploitation of the Moor from the early prehistoric
period onwards. The well-preserved and often visible relationship between
settlement sites, major land boundaries, trackways, ceremonial and funerary
monuments as well as later industrial remains, gives significant insights
into successive changes in the pattern of land use through time.
This enclosure with hut circles north of Bala Brook is a well-preserved
example and provides important evidence of how early farming and stock-rearing
communities lived on the Moor. In addition, the tinners' caches give valuable
information on the later industrial exploitation of the area.

Source: Historic England

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