MSO7928 - Post-medieval lime kiln at Bossington Beach (Monument)

SS 88420 48022. The site of a lime kiln. An unannotated building is shown at SS 88420 48022 on the 1889 Ordnance Survey map, surveyed in 1888 [1]. On the 1903 edition the same building appears with a small rectangular yard some 45 metres to the east at SS 88467 48030. The annotation, 'Old Limekiln', appears between them, however it is not clear to which feature the annotation applies [2]. 'Old Limekiln' is marked on the Ordnance Survey 1962 mapping [3]. The area falls on the southern edge of the massive shingle bank which skirts Porlock Bay. They have presumably been earlier destroyed, washed away by one of the inundations by the sea or covered by the shingle as there if now no trace of these buildings. No local knowledge of this lime kiln was obtained. [4] On the Ordnance Survey map of 1931 the annotation 'Old Limekiln' appears to be applied to the eastern structure. This may support the interpretation that the kiln was constructed between 1888 and 1903. The function of the western of the two structures remains unknown. No field evidence noted during the Porlock Bay rapid resource assessment. [5,6] No trace of a structure was found on the site. Post-medieval pottery, glass and tile or brick fragments have been found in the shingle bank behind the beach. Erosion or shift of the bank may have obliterated the lime kiln. [7] A post-medieval lime kiln, visible as a ruined building, was mapped from aerial photographs taken in 1941. Located just behind Bossington Beach at SS 8846 4803, about 37 metres east of the path that leads to the beach from the end of Sparkhayes Lane, the roofless rectangular structure was 5.5 metres east to west by 4 metres north to south and walls 0.5 metre thick, with a 1.4 metres wide gap or entrance central in the south wall. The structure had been demolished or destroyed on aerial photographs taken in 1976. [8-10] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [11] The feature is not shown on the Tithe Map for Porlock. [12]