MDE1238 - Cavudus or Cewydd's Stone, Six Acre Farm (Monument)

An inscribed memorial stone, possibly between 5th and 8th Century in date. It is 1.3 metres high and bears the inscription "Cavudi filius Civili"; Cavudus is said to be the Latin name of St Cewydd. At one point it was used as a gatepost.

An inscribed stone was found by Reverend Chanter, near Parracombe, reading 'cavudi filius civili'. The stone narrows at both ends. It is Romano-British by origin; about AD 400- 500. It was used as a hanging post for a gate, but has now been removed to Six Acre Farm, Lynton. It was probably brought from the old road from Parracombe to Lynton. [1] The post-Roman memorial stone is fashioned from local sandstone. It is 1.8 metres by 0.62 metres, with two lines of lettering broken at the end of the second line. The romanized Celtic names probably point to the stones Christian origins. [3] The stone was at Parracombe originally. It may be 6th Century. [4] A possibly 7th Century memorial stone was found in February 1913, by the Reverend J. F. Chanter. It was used as a gatepost in one of the outer hedges of Lynton Common (SS 707 486), which was enclosed in 1861, on the property of C.F. Bailey, of Lee Abbey. It is inscribed in Latin characters with the words Cavudi filius Civili. It was moved to Six Acre Farm (SS 7004 4824). The stone is of almost triangular shape tapering to both ends, and is about 6 1/2 feet long, up to 27 inches wide and more than 12 inches thick. According to Sir John Rhys, the name of the person commemorated, CAVUDUS, is also the latin name of St. Cewydd. The stone was scheduled by the Department of Environment, No. 41, but it was not given in their lists of 1971 or 1978, although it does appear in the list of the Devon Committee for Rescue Archaeology. [5,9] The 'Cavudus Stone' is a well preserved Dark Age memorial stone. It's inscription is translated as '(The tomb of) Cavudus, Son of Civilis'. [6] This triangular slab of grey sandstone is 1.3 metres high and 0.6 metres across its base. It has the clearly defined inscription on its north face. The stone is pierced by two holes, which took iron gate hangers, the lower one breaking the lettering. Surveyed at 1:2500. [7,8] The inscription is shown clearly on the drawing by Burrow. [10] Pearce groups this along with stones from Winsford Hill, Sourton, Stowford and Lundy as early Christian memorials of an upper class, set up between AD 500 and AD 600. [12] The condition of the stone is unchanged. [13] Cewydd's Stone stands in the garden of Six Acre Farm, at SS 70044825. It is a gritty, sandstone block, roughly triangular in section. It measures 1.3 metres high, 0.7 metres wide and 0.35 metres thick. On its north face some letters are still visible, but they are beginning to weather and fade. There are two small circular holes at the top and bottom of the stone, for iron gate hangers, the lower one has pierced the lettering. [14] SS 7004 4825. Cewydd's Stone, an inscribed memorial stone possibly of 7th century date, is still in position in the private garden of Six Acre Farm. [17] The stone is a pillar stone with a simple memorial text which reads `CAVVDI FILIVS CIVI[L]I' which translates as `[the stone] of Cauudus, son of Civi[l]is'. These types of stone date from the 5th or 6th to the 11th Centuries; the Latin name suggests a date of the 6th to 8th Centuries, a date which the use of the horizontal `I' corroborates. [18] The Scheduled Monument Condition Assessment of 2009 gave the site a score of 0. [21] The site was surveyed in June 2015 as part of the 2015 Exmoor Scheduled Monument Condition Assessment. It was given a survival score of 6. [22] The stone is well protected from damage in its current location. The last survey in 2015 identified ivy as the main deterioration agent, which has since been cleared from the stone’s surface. Generally the inscription remains clear and there is no current threats to the stone aside from the potential for future vegetation growth. [23-24] The stone was photographed in 1996. [25] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [26] "Inscribed Stone" depicted and labelled on 2021 MasterMap data. [27]