MSO10957 - Possible prehistoric settlement or stock enclosure on Wester Emmetts (Monument)

Subrectangular enclosure seen on aerial photographs linked to a short bank or ditch. Fragments of irregular enclosure enclosed by a bank containing a high proportion of quartz boulders. Southwest corner is best preserved with banks c. 1 metre high. No visible entrance. [2] SS 744 376. An irregularly shaped enclosure, first noted on aerial photographs, was recorded in the field in 198 on the ridge to the northnortheast of Kinsford Cottages at Wester Emmetts. The feature encloses approximately 1.5 hectares and is defined by very low banks and vegetational changes. No entrance was discernible. Both the air photographs and the field assessment suggest an irregular rectangular feature attached to the interior northwest side. [4] SS 7431 3755. An irregular shaped enclosure situated, at about 450 metres above Ordnance Datum, on a gentle south facing slope on a ridge at Wester Emmets. It is heavily overgrown by peat and turf which have made its original outline and features now barely discernible. It measures about 90 metres north to south by 69 metres within a low earth and stone bank about 5 metres wide at best and 0.7 metres maximum height. Due to the peat build up this bank is reduced, in the main, to an inner facing scarp in the northwest and an outer facing scarp around the southeast. No trace of an entrance could be seen. The silted interior is lush long grass. An amorphous area of rough ground in the northeast may be the remains of an associated feature but it is very difficult to make out any specific details. Several white quartz stones can be seen protruding through the turf; one in the bank in the north is 0.9 metres by 0.4 metres and 0.3 metres high, and a second outside the enclosure in the northeast is 0.8 metres by 0.3 metres and 0.5 metres high. The origin and purpose of the enclosure are not clear. The significant build up of peat suggests it is quite ancient and it could possibly be the remains of a prehistoric settlement or stock enclosure. [5] The enclosure was clearly visible on aerial photographs examined as part of the Exmoor National Park National Mapping Project in 2008. It is strikingly similar in size and form to the larger of the two enclosures on South Common, Lynton And Lynmouth, Devon (see MDE1067), which suggests a possible Bronze Age date for this monument. [6,7] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [8]