MSO6790 - Swarcombe deserted farmstead (Monument)

The deserted farmstead of Swarcombe consists of a collection of earthwork platforms representing the sites of buildings. Former closes are visible as earth and stone banks. The farmstead is shown on historic mapping.

The 25 inch 1st Edition Ordnance Survey mapping of 1889 shows the remains of a possibly two celled, rectangular building and a number of small closes with the descriptor "Swarcombe". [1] The site of Swarcombe is centred at SS 8196 3984 in a meadow. The earthwork remains are consistent with the features depicted in 1889. The building survives as an earthwork platform cut into the hillside, defined by a sharp cut scarp, 1.3 high, on its upper side, and by a spread bank on the lower. The platform measures some 17.5 metres by 9 metres, but the absence of walling does not allow the precise dimensions of the building to be recovered. The former closes are marked by earth and stone banks with grown out beech hedging and isolated hawthorn trees upon them. Several slight platforms close by may mark small outbuildings in the adjoining closes, but long grass did not permit a confident interpretation of these slight features. [1,2] The site is shown on the Tithe Map for Exford similarly to the 1st Edition map, with a single building at c. SS 8195 3984 and enclosed gardens to the southwest at SS 8194 3983. Together they are labelled 66, which the accompanying Apportionment describes as "Swarcombe: Cottage and Garden", owned by Sir Thomas Dyke Acland Baronet and occupied by Charity May. [3] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [4]