Source/Archive record SEM8028 - Hoaroak Valley: Historic landscape survey and analysis
Type | Report |
---|---|
Title | Hoaroak Valley: Historic landscape survey and analysis |
Author/Originator | Riley, H. |
Date/Year | 2013 |
Hazel Riley report | |
ENPA project name | EMLPS |
Digital Object Identifier | 10.5284/1027561 |
Please read the Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record caveat document.
Abstract/Summary
Hoaroak Cottage, an abandoned 19th Century farmstead, has been the focus of informed conservation work by the Exmoor National Park Authority in 2010-13. It lies at the heart of the Hoaroak Valley, which contains a wealth of historic landscape features reflecting the importance of this part of Exmoor from the Neolithic period onwards. Numerous standing stones and stone settings were placed around the valley around 6000 years ago, and several large burial cairns were used by medieval farmers to mark out the boundaries of their fields. This was an attractive place to live: four Bronze Age round houses, an enclosure and several fields, lie at the heart of a newly discovered settlement complex on the west facing slopes of Cheriton Ridge, opposite Hoaroak Cottage. Routes across Exmoor Forest towards Brendon and the coast used the valley and the higher ground on Exe Plain, and by c. AD 1200 a hamlet of two farms was established close to the prehistoric settlements on Cheriton Ridge. These farms worked two large blocks of fields, growing arable crops and keeping livestock, until c. AD 1400. Periodic cultivation of these fields continued in the post-medieval period.
Recent analysis of the structure of Hoaroak Cottage has shown that it may have been built in the late 18th or early 19th Century using a much earlier building as its core. Agricultural labourers, working for the Vellacott family at Furzehill, lived at Hoaroak in the 19th Century. By 1870 it was leased to Frederic Knight and Hoaroak Cottage became the base for the Hoar Oak herding until 1958.
The survival of the multi-period settlement complex on Cheriton Ridge, with two phases of Bronze Age settlement and associated field systems adjacent to a medieval farmstead with its fields, is important both regionally for the story of the development of settlement on Exmoor, but also nationally for the implications it has for furthering our knowledge of the early medieval period in Britain.
External Links (1)
- https://doi.org/10.5284/1027561 (Report via ADS website)
Referenced Monuments (47)
- MSO7125 19th Century ironstone workings southwest of Gammon's Corner (Monument)
- MSO6982 19th Century prospecting pit overlooking Hoaroak Water (Monument)
- MSO7124 19th Century trial pit overlooking Hoaroak Water (Monument)
- MSO7121 Bronze Age burial cairn above Long Chains Combe (Monument)
- MDE1309 Bronze Age burial cairn on Cheriton Ridge (Monument)
- MDE1308 Bronze Age burial cairn on Cheriton Ridge (Monument)
- MSO6848 Bronze Age burial cairns north of Long Chains Combe (Monument)
- MEM22455 Bronze Age field system on Cheriton Ridge (Monument)
- MEM22451 Bronze Age hut platform on Cheriton Ridge (Monument)
- MEM22452 Bronze Age hut platform on Cheriton Ridge (Monument)
- MEM22453 Bronze Age hut platform on Cheriton Ridge (Monument)
- MEM22454 Bronze Age hut platform on Cheriton Ridge (Monument)
- MDE1302 Furzehill Common II: Prehistoric stone setting on Furzehill Common (Monument)
- MDE8977 Furzehill Common III: Prehistoric stone alignment and associated burial cairn (Monument)
- MSO6988 Hoar Oak Cottage; 19th Century house and yard at entrance to Long Chains Combe (Monument)
- MSO6985 Hoar Oak Tree (Tree)
- MMO2639 Hoaroak Cottage, Lynton (Building)
- MSO6989 Hoaroak Hill Sheepfold (Monument)
- MMO2197 Late prehistoric enclosure and field system south of Cheriton Ridge (Monument)
- MSO7120 Late prehistoric stone setting on Hoaroak Hill (Monument)
- MDE20820 Medieval field system on Cheriton Ridge (Monument)
- MDE12856 Medieval or post-medieval field system on Cheriton Ridge (Monument)
- MMO2193 Medieval or post-medieval prospecting trench in Hoaroak Valley (Monument)
- MMO2638 Medieval or post-medieval routeway on the west slopes of Furzehill Common (Monument)
- MMO2199 Medieval platforms south of Cheriton Ridge (Monument)
- MDE12831 Possible reused prehistoric stone gate post north of Hoaroak Cottage (Monument)
- MEM22457 Post-medieval field system at Hoaroak Cottage (Monument)
- MEM22458 Post-medieval or modern sheep fold south of Hoaroak Cottage (Monument)
- MMO2173 Post-medieval peat cutting east of Hoaroak (Monument)
- MMO2161 Post-medieval peat cutting on Furzehill Common (Monument)
- MMO2632 Post-medieval peat cutting west of Hoar Oak Cottage (Monument)
- MMO2201 Post-medieval quarry near Gammon's Corner (Monument)
- MMO2628 Post-medieval quarry south of Hoaroak Cottage (Monument)
- MSO7123 Post-medieval stone working site east of Hoaroak Water (Monument)
- MDE12857 Post-medieval turf cutting at Hoaroak Farm (Monument)
- MMO2633 Post-medieval water meadow east of Hoaroak Cottage (Monument)
- MDE11685 Post-medieval water meadow or leat on Cheriton Ridge (Monument)
- MDE1311 Prehistoric clearance cairns on Cheriton Ridge (Monument)
- MEM22433 Prehistoric flint on Cheriton Ridge (Find Spot)
- MDE8985 Prehistoric standing stones on Furzehill Common (Monument)
- MDE1304 Prehistoric stone setting northwest of Hoaroak Cottage (Monument)
- MSO6840 Prehistoric stone setting on Exe Plain (Monument)
- MDE1305 Prehistoric stone setting on Furzehill Common (Monument)
- MSO6964 Prehistoric stone setting on Hoaroak Hill (Monument)
- MDE12859 Probable Bronze Age burial cairn on Cheriton Ridge (Monument)
- MEM22456 Probable Bronze Age field system on Cheriton Ridge (Monument)
- MSO10209 The Linton Road, Exmoor (Monument)
Referenced Events (1)
- EEM14147 2013: GPS - Hoaroak Valley landscape study
Record last edited
Jan 19 2022 2:57PM