MDE21081 - 19th Century quarry on Butter Hill (Monument)

'Quarry' shown on Ordnace Survey maps from 1903 and 1962. [1,2] Buttercombe Hill Quarry. Sandstone. Operated by Barnstaple RDC in 1896. [3] This site, on Butter Hill, may be that to which Bowman refers. [4] A quarry of possible post-medieval date is visible on aerial photographs as an earthwork to the north of Countisbury, centred on circa SS 7474 4990. The quarry is a large irregularly shaped pit, circa 24 metres in diameter, overlooking Countisbury Common from the western slope of Butter Hill. It is one of three such earthwork sites within the extensive and probably medieval relict field systems to the north of Countisbury. It is marked on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1889, and therefore predates this date. However, it can be seen to cut through the earthworks of the relict field system and was therefore probably excavated in the post-medieval period after they had passed out of agricultural use. [5-7] The quarry cuts into a field boundary recorded during a watching brief in 2021 (MDE8687). It may have been accessed from a trackway laid deliberately to the south. Finds from the trackway dated to the late 19th or early 20th Century onwards. [8] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [9]