MMO2829 - Post-medieval or modern quarries or extractive pits on Kitnor Heath (Monument)

Extensive linear pits are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs of the 1940s onwards, on the south facing slopes of Kitnor Heath at circa SS 8729 3951. The earthworks are probably the remains of quarries or mineral prospecting pits of post-medieval date and early 20th Century date. The pits are divided into two groups by a trackway running northwest to southeast over Kitnor Heath. To the west of the path are the older and more extensive pits. Large spoil heaps can be seen on the southern edge of a number of these pits, cut, as most of the features are, by numerous entrances or barrow tracks. These pits are depicted on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map and annotated as Old Quarries, indicating they may had probably passed out of use by 1890. The focus of extraction may have shifted to the east of the path by this time, where a single small pit is depicted on the 1st Edition map. By the publication of the 2nd Edition map in 1903 this area has developed, and two more substantial diggings can be seen. It is probable that extraction continued here for some time subsequent to 1903 as the two pits have merged into a single larger excavation by 1947. Again, entrance tracks indicating access was gained to these pits from downslope. The precise function of the pits is unclear, but their east-west orientation may support the interpretation that they were following a seam of a mineral resource, perhaps iron. [1-6] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [7]