ACTIVITIES
Archaeology Projects (external)
A landscape study at Stoke Barton Farm, in the parish of Hartland, North Devon - By Rob Wilson
Abstract
This study attempts to link both documentary evidence with local personal
memories, concerning the once numerous stone posts that have stood in
the landscape of Stoke Barton Farm. Following field work and research
I have tried to interpret the information gathered to give an account
of how these features may have evolved.
Introduction
My initial step into undertaking a landscape study of Stoke Barton Farm,
came from the first eight lines of a paragraph from The Book Of Hartland
by local historian Richard Pearse-Chope (1862-1938), in which he states…
“ In addition to a score of tumuli there are in various parts of
the parish especially at Stoke Barton, a number of stone posts or monolith’s,
some of which had they been found on Dartmoor would have undoubtedly been
described as menhirs. One of the most conspicuous 7ft 4ins high is situated
on sheeplace warren behind Hartland Quay, and overlooks the sea, the remainder
are in the middle of fields and are supposed to be placed there for the
comfort of cattle.”….
And also after a chance conversation with a former farm-worker at Stoke
Barton came a series of recorded interviews, undertaken through the winter
of 2006, with several more people, nearly all of whom had links with this
farm over the years. Their reminiscences, recollections, and surviving
knowledge proved to be of great wealth, not only about Stoke Barton and
its stones, but with the surrounding area in general.
Historical
Hartland, oe Heortingtun c. 880A.D. and Stoke, oe Stoc, were in Saxon
times a royal possession, and continued so up until just after the Norman
Conquest in 1066.
A collegiate church comprising of secular canons was founded here in c.1050
by Gytha, wife of Earl Godwin and dedicated to St. Nectan, an Irish missionary.
Prior to this a sixth century monastery is thought to have been sited
close by. A building south east of the present Stoke St. Nectan’s
church, c. 1300, known as Church House, is believed to have been first
occupied by priests in c. 1160 prior to the re-founding of a religious
house in the river valley half a km. N.E. of Stoke by Geoffrey De Dynham
in c. 1169
 Figure 1; St Nectan’s Church |
 |
The word Stoke is derived from the oe Stoc meaning outlying
farmstead or hamlet, or a religious place or secondary settlement.
Barton oe Bere-tun implies barley farm or outlying grange where corn is
stored: To this day a barn known as the Granary is situated within the
farmyard at Stoke Barton, (Figure 3 & 4).
In the late 18th century an agricultural improver by the name of Mr John
Exter took over the tenancy of Stoke Barton farm. If any stones existed
at this time, one wonders how he might have viewed them. The fact that
some stones have survived up to this present day, whilst others succumbed
to post-war mechanised farming, seems to suggest that he left them in-situ.
Site Study
Stoke Barton farm lies within the linear village of Stoke situated on
the northwest peninsular of North Devon in the parish of Hartland. Grid
reference SS 233 245. A tenanted farm belonging to Hartland Abbey Estate
of five hundred acres, its history is reflected by weathered stone barns,
enclosing walls and earthen banks, which neatly defend the house from
the climatic elements of this coastal region. For the purpose of this
study I have used the current field names of this farm.
Topography is one of extensive large enclosed fields of which today grassland
predominates. Wooded river valleys border to north and south. Culm grassland
is evident towards a stream known as Wargery Water. Springs rise in many
places and the landform itself rises to 120 metres above sea level. The
soil type consists of brown earths, brown sands, alluvial with brown podzolic,
podzols and stagno podzuls. Underlying this land are layers of sandstone
and shale underpinned by the upper culm measures of the Lower Carboniferous
period.
Three extant stones remain at Stoke Barton. These are located in the following
fields: Pony’s Platt, Big Shipless, and Big Newberry. Seven that
are relict are thought to have stood in the following fields: Big Longland,
West Down Quarry, Down Meadow, Quarry Field, The Snook, Broken Cross,
and The Warren. One stone in Big Meadow was relict as late as 2006. Fortunately,
I was able to record both stone and site. The lower half of the stone
is still below ground (Figure 5)
Description: hard indigenous rock, possibly sandstone, with seven veins
of quartz across its width, it had an angled top but its bearing is not
known.
Figure 7; Location Map (NTS) OS original: Current Field Names
Analysis And Interpretation
While conducting interviews with various local people, I discovered that
the extant stone in Big Newberry (SS 246-242) listed by Devon SMR, in
fact once stood at the top end of this field at midpoint and roughly 34
metres back from the boundary hedge with Broken Cross. This stone was
removed and repositioned at the bottom of the field, close to a spring
on the orders of the then owner of Hartland Abbey, Sir Dennis Stucley,
sometime in the late 1960’s. Today it is barely visible, entangled
in briars (Figures 8-10)
Other stones, I am informed, languish in the footings of blocked up old
field gateways made redundant with the introduction of larger farm machinery.
Six relict field gates have been recorded, and one other stone resides
as a field drain lintel in Middledown (SS 231- 241) where the top of it
protrudes through the lower hedge bank.
Figure 11; Removed stone in field drain Middledown; L=70cm, showing; possible
183cm in total
This may have been the stone near the old footpath in Middledown as related by one of my interviewees. At the right time of the year and in prevailing light, crop-marks can be seen in this field.
Figure 12; View from west down quarry towards Kernstone Farm; Middledown
on left, Little Shipless on right foreground
Air photography taken by the RAF in the 1930’s, Figure 13, shows Big Shipless as being part scrub and part grassland. On its southern side there appears to be a sheepfold with a building enclosed within it. It is now relict. In my fieldwork just a scatter of stones and small pegged roof slates remain. No one I interviewed knew of this place.
The extant stone that resides here today is not visible, possibly due
to the distance the photograph was taken from. What is visible though
is some kind of enclosure on the top, situated where the extant stone
now stands, might this be the remains of a cairn?
[Hadingham, 1976. p119-121]. A spring, known as Brettmans Well, is situated
on the seaward side of Big Shipless.
Some stones in use today are possibly being used as lintels, well caps
and whilst others may have been used as infill around the farm.
Figure 14; Stone in use as a well cap at Stoke Barton, dimensions between
120-150cm
Five other stones may have stood outside the boundaries of Stoke Barton Farm. These may have been on the north side, above Hartland Abbey. There may have been one at Berry Farm (SS 234-253), one at Markadon Farm (SS 235-254), two below Markadon Farm either side of a green lane, and one on the east side of Shopshill , where a small farmstead was once sited (SS 244-252). An extant stone stands on the footpath close to a relict field boundary west of Shopshill, nearby is a quarry long disused. Numerous springs are situated all along this north side ridge.
Kernstone Farm, south of Stoke Barton, may have had two
stones at some time, both in the fields west of the present farmhouse.
Like Wargery Farm, its neighbour, Kernstone overlooks the Stoke Barton
lands.
It is interesting to note that Chope locates a conspicuous stone on Sheeplace
Warren and not on Sheeplace Brake where an extant stone of similar proportions
stands as mentioned in the introduction. Might that be an error in his
text, or was there also a stone on Sheeplace Warren? Two recent conversations
with local people have revealed a possibility of there being one there
at some time. The other point to bear in mind is that the extant stone
on Sheeplace Brake, its more recent name being Big Shipless, is directly
behind Scrida Cove not Hartland Quay. You cannot see Hartland Quay from
this stone.
No clues of stone locations are apparent in the 1846 Tithe field names
for Stoke Barton, except Broken Cross. A medieval cross may have stood
on the crossway between Stoke Village, Newton Farm, and St. Leonards where
a former chapel was sited. The little field known as Pony’s Platt
was originally called Mow Barton on the Tithe map of 1846.
Might it be possible that an earlier barn or buildings could have once
stood here?
Six stones at Stoke Barton Farm may have followed the same alignment.
Of those six, one is extant at Big Shipless, the remaining are relict.
Quite what this indicates is unclear, though the possibility of a former
stone row cannot be ruled out.
Dowsing
Divining for latent water and minerals beneath the grounds surface is
an ancient craft known throughout the world. Scepticism by academics of
its role as a tool in the pursuit of archaeology is waning. Like the use
of a metal detector, dowsing, in the right hands, could assist with field
work. With this in mind, I had a photograph of Pony's Platt taken by Mr.
David Thompson from the top of St Nectans church tower. This small field
lies close to the present farmhouse and in it stands a small extant stone.
Using both the photograph and an Ordnance Survey map depicting this area,
Mr Bryan Hummerstone, a local dowser, came up with a possible former stone
circle pictured below (Figure 17). A brief analysis and interpretation
given by him reads as follows…..
‘’White lines indicate energy lines, red rings apart from the extant stone may be relict socket holes. Yellow squares show possible ditch and purple hatching possible banking. Black lines in field is possible disturbed earth.’’ Further to this, a farmworker I interviewed recalled a relict stone that was situated in the adjoining field west of Pony Platt, which is known as Big Longland.
The practice of founding Christian buildings on or close to pagan sites is well known. Curiously, the parish church of Stoke St. Nectans is sited below a raised bank, which is now part of the present churchyard (Figure 20). Might the ditch across the road in the field at Stoke Barton have had a conceivable connection with this bank at some period?
It is worth recording here, that a visual sighting of another extant stone roughly northeast from this field reveals itself across the Abbey river valley 105 meters above sea level.
Mythology and Folklore
Ancient traditions relating to both mythology and folklore, may have manifested
through social and cultural interaction with the landscape. Its roots,
probably lie deep in prehistory. Lore, a body of traditions, has been
handed down by word of mouth throughout the world, folk tale stories,
customs, and beliefs are too many people, the very essence of their culture.
Associations with human struggle encompassing life, love and death and
the natural environment are lasting, the traditional cycle lives on in
many ways to this present day, none more so than those associated with
wells, and stones.
Brettmans Well in the parish of Hartland holds a tradition that its water
is a cure for the eyes, whilst the stone on Big Shipless turns around
at the sound and ringing of Hartland’s church bells.
A farm worker recently told me that someone once told him, that you could
tell the time by the stones at Stoke Barton.
The Story
Utilisation of stone upright features in the landscape has probably occurred
at Stoke Barton farm irrespective of their origins. Farmers, we are informed,
did erect stone rubbing posts throughout the country for cattle, and they
were placed in the middle of fields. Yet might we perceive these stone
posts and monoliths mentioned by Pearse - Chope as remnants of a period
in prehistory when the then local community perhaps used stone as a symbol
of both life and death.
We know from evidence that human agency has always interacted with the
physical fabric of the landscape to suit both immediate needs and to develop
a certain degree of sustainability in order to survive.
In the 1920’s a scatter of Mesolithic flints were found below the
cliffs between Blegberry and Hartland Quay. Might this be the first tangible
evidence of a communal presence within the landscape of Stoke Barton?
The presence of the sea, natural outcrops of indigenous rock and far visual
sightings are significant elements in trying to visualise what might have
been taking place here in prehistory.
If a fledgling community was taking shape, to what extent could the land
be a governing factor in the mindset of an unknown people whose social
and cultural existence had to be maintained under the most rigorous conditions?
The stone on Big Shipless is a single slab of carboniferous shale rising
to 2.24 meters. From it an uninterrupted view south extends 50km down
the coastline. To the southwest and east there are distant hills and ridges.
North is obscured by a ridge preceded by a deep river valley, whilst due
northwest lies the enigmatic island of Lundy.
If a Mesolithic time-depth were to be considered here,
a community would have most probably sought the environs of a river valley.
The Abbey valley north of Stoke Barton farm could have been such a place.
Sea levels would have been higher at that period in time and the valley
bottom might have resembled a large lake. As to how much forestation did
encroach on the landscape is hard to surmise, although high ground continually
exposed to the fluctuations of the climate may have only existed as moor
or scrub.
A pattern of land use, however sporadic, would have evolved over time
as subsequent generations died out and others took their place. With developing
new skills the rudimentary clearance of woodlands in the Mesolithic period
might have given way to a more sustained landscape change for the purpose
of both pastoral and arable farming.
There is no reasonable doubt that given the geographical location of Stoke
Barton that the sea would have been one natural way to gain access to
a community for the important purposes of trade and social discourse,
early craft we know had shallow draughts enabling them to negotiate both
inshore waters and rivers. Blackpool Mill, (SS 226-257), half a km N.W.
of Stoke Barton, could have been a landing point (Figure 23).
However, people must have been moving around in the interior.
Track-ways and paths would have been used much as they are today, as to
what extent woodland management was taking place is uncertain. What is
apparent at Stoke Barton is that all the stone sites were situated on
high ground including those above the opposing river valleys. The reason
for this may have been that they were meant to be seen as a focal point
in the landscape.
A question must arise then, as to who put them there, and for what purpose.
If they are simply rubbing posts for cattle then farmers are responsible.
If it was people in prehistory then surely we must consider possibly the
late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age, 3500 BC - 2200BC.
Water, springs, and wet places, were held in high regard by prehistoric
societies. Votive offerings in the form of objects and even human sacrifice
are known. In Quarry Field in the 1960’s a lady water diviner was
physically knocked off her feet on finding a source of water. Close by,
a relict stone is thought to have stood. The lower margins of Quarry Field,
south of this stone, was once marshland.
Landscape character is clearly defined at Stoke Barton farm to this day.
Large enclosed fields are in sharp contrast to those that serve Kernstone
(SS 232-237), Wargery (SS 238- 235), and the former farm at Little Barton
(SS 241-237). This distinction is an interesting aspect in terms of focal
presentation by a possible prehistoric society. Throughout Britain and
Europe, many ceremonial and ritual sites accompany often wild windswept
areas with visual backdrops of ridges, hills, mountains, sea or moor.
Within this context, Stoke Barton is no exception.
From Bronze Age tumuli on Bursdon moor (SS 262-202) framed
by a valley, the Warren is visible six miles away. The Warren can also
been seen from the Iron Age hill-fort at Clovelly Dykes (SS 312-236).
Whilst, the stone in Big Shipless can be noted from a ridge road running
between Hardisworthy Cross and Firebeacon Cross (SS 237-207), I see these
as important elements in terms of a possible interrelated landscape.
Sited where it is overlooking Stoke Barton and to the north, Wargery,
mentioned above, has the oe interpretation of ‘weard’ meaning
‘watchman’, ‘guard’ or ‘protector’.
Due to lack of written evidence from pre-history centred on Stoke Barton
and it’s settlement, we can only speculate on how a community may
have evolved. Exploitation by early human intervention would have started
the process of soil modification, by the clearance of woodland for the
growing of crops and the need to keep livestock. A pattern of change may
have emerged through social, economical and cultural practices. After
all, a site may have been chosen and with it a lasting continuity evolved.
Royal status, religious Christian significance, and Norman influence after
1066 singles it out as a place of some importance. The Dissolution of
Monasteries, in Henry VIII’s time, brought about an end to monastic
rule, and we see Hartland Abbey and it’s estate eventually fall
into private ownership. Life must have continued in terms of farming,
although some changes may have occurred relating to the land. Woodland
was prized both for economic gain and country pursuits. Field names from
the 1841 Tithe map of Stoke Barton farm (see appendix) include, Long Park,
East and West Old Park, North New Park, and South New Park indicating
that these may have been former areas for hunting.
Field margins today reveal tantalising evidence of former woodland plant
life, including species as dogs mercury, bluebell, wood anemone, and ferns.
New methods of land improvement could have furthered change. Some field
boundaries we see today are of earthen banks faced with stone and crowned
with hawthorn, blackthorn and hazel, and generally look like the work
of parliamentary enclosure. Other field boundaries may be of a greater
age and only a hedge survey of existing trees, shrubs and plant species
may be
able to determine this.
Any existing stone posts or monoliths at the time of enclosure, could
have been left where they were, those deemed to be in the way may have
been removed or broken up. A possible stone row between Big Shipless and
Quarry Field may have been systematically
destroyed through this procedure, leaving only single stones in the middle
of enclosed fields.
Recorded information states that prior to 1921 the Warren, Big Shipless,
and Little Shipless were all under furze and bracken; the rest of the
farm being given over to the rearing of sheep and to a lesser extent cattle.
Whilst other parcels of land were for seasonal crops.
The onset of mechanized farming swept away the horse as the mainstay of
power at Stoke Barton, which together with oxen had held sway for many
hundreds of years, with them went a more gentle approach to the shaping
of the landscape. Further change in the 1940s saw uncultivated land under
the plough for wartime food production. As agricultural practices progressed
with new machinery, some stones that may have stood at enclosure were
now removed, possibly after two millennia in the landscape. Today, Stoke
Barton farm has come full circle it would seem. No land is under the plough,
and apart from a small herd of cattle, sheep dominate the grassland.
This story may have some element of truth. However, trying
to piece together how human intent progressed and interacted with the
land is extremely difficult given that this northwest corner of Devon
has been neglected in terms of serious archaeological study.
In 2006 a project was set up by the archaeological department of Exeter
University to be called XArch and is centred on the field known as the
Warren at Stoke Barton. Its focus of attention being to survey through
the use of geophysics a listed ruin of a summer house and a possible artificial
rabbit warren close by. This project is now ongoing and will eventually
cover 70 acres of this field. Perhaps over time, a more detailed picture
may emerge relating to early settlement patterns within the landscape
of both Stoke village and Stoke Barton farm.
The possibility of former stone socket holes being revealed together with
possible evidence relating to a ritual landscape may throw further light
on the early observations of local historian Richard Pearse-Chope.
Acknowledgement: I wish to express my thanks to Sir Hugh Stucley of Hartland
Abbey and Mr. & Mrs. C. Davey and family of Stoke Barton for their
assistance and help with this study and allowing me free access to their
land.
Photography tower pictures by Mr David Thompson remainder of pictures
by author.
Appendix I
Personal Remembrances:
• I was told, that they buried some stones at the Snook up against
the boundary with Broken Cross
• Some of them were set up to five feet in the ground
• We called them rubbing posts they might have been something else
though
• They were in the way what with tractors and machinery as it was
• One lay by the hedge at the Snook for many years, it was between
10 and 12 feet long its gone now though
• I don’t think they were rubbing posts they were older than
that
Copyright © 2007 North Devon Archaeological Society