MEM22575 - Post-medieval prospecting on Halscombe (Monument)

The Historic Environment Officer for the Exmoor Mires Project undertook a non-intrustive walkover survey of the proposed mire restoration area on Deer Park, which included this site. Noted was a curvilinear trench with banks of spoil on each side. This feature is 150 metres long, 3 metres wide and 1 metre deep, while the banks are 2 to 3 metres wide and 0.5 metres high. The northwest end of the trench cuts prospecting pit MEM22574, while further south it also cuts the MEM22577 contour leat. This forms part of MEM22547. [1] A large scale metric survey of an area of earthworks on Halscombe was undertaken by Hazel Riley in 2013 as part of the Exmoor Mires Project. A curvilinear trench with banks of spoil on each side was surveyed. The trench is 150 metres long, 3 metres wide and 1 metre deep; the bank is 2 to 3 metres wide and 0.5 metres high. The northwest end of the trench cuts into the prospecting trench MEM22574. It overlies the nearby gully MEM22578 and has cut through the nearby contour leat MEM22577. These earthworks are most likely to be part of Frederick Knight’s prospecting for ironstone in the southern part of Exmoor Forest and so date from the early 1850s. [2]