MSO10929 - Warren Cottages, Warren Farm (Monument)

Marked "in ruins" on six inch Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division map. [1] Remains comprise a range of two buildings. Southwestern facing wall is unmortared with earthworks showing other walls and internal features. Northwestern end likely to be domestic, Southeastern end was a byre. Northwestern end has small raised platform with steps leading down to a garden enclosure. Walls up to 1.3 metres high. Door at southeastern end of range shows signs of having been blocked. Contour leat (MSO10940) cuts across enclosure walls and trackway. [2] Cottages probably built by John Knight soon after purchase of Exmoor forest. [3] Only one wall now standing. [5] The remains of Warren Cottages occupy a turf covered outcrop on the northern side of the Exe valley, and close to Warren Bridge. They consist of a four celled building with an annex on the southwestern side. Only the southwestern wall close to the eastern gable end now survives as standing masonry: coursed drystone walls 0.8 metres high and 0.5 metres wide. A gap of 0.7 metres in the southern wall close to the eastern end marks a former doorway. The positions of the north eastern wall and all the internal divisions are marked by scarps and robbing trenches. [7] In 1851 these cottages were recorded as being inhabited by a shepherd and his wife, an agricultural labourer and 3 lodgers, by the 1880s these were unoccupied. [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] The cottages are depicted and labelled on the 25 inch 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map. [10]