Promoting awareness of the archaeology and history of north Devon
Promoting awareness of the archaeology and history of north Devon
THE HATHERLEIGH LANDSCAPE GROUP
Deborah Laing-Trengove(Newsletter Summer 2001)
The Hatherleigh History Society Landscape Project Group
had its first informal meeting on 2nd May 2001.
This was well attended, with about nine or ten History Society members
present. Janet Daynes and Gordon Fisher from the Winkleigh ACE group were
also present, and it is hoped that both groups will be working closely
together on any on-going projects.
At this initial meeting it was decided that as a starting point we would
look at the water mills in and around Hatherleigh, including the parishes
of Iddesleigh, Monkokehampton and Jacobstowe. We are very lucky at Hatherleigh
to have a keen amateur photographer equipped with his own plane, and he
has already taken some aerial photographs of the five main mill sites
in our area. One site in particular has already proved to have some interesting
features adjacent to the remaining buildings on the site, in the form
of soilmarks.
These appear to comprise of a curvilinear enclosure boundary with possible
rectilinear features within it. It is unfortunate that no fieldwork has
been possible to investigate these features, but with the possibility
of an increase in the ploughing of land in the area it is hoped that this
may be carried out in the future.
Deborah Laing-Trengove,
Hatherleigh History Group.
THE HATHERLEIGH LANDSCAPE GROUP
Deborah Laing-Trengove(Newsletter No 4 2002)
It was with some regret that the group put its mill project on hold earlier in the year. Most members felt that this project was proving a little ambitious and unwieldy for a group such as ours, particularly as few members have any practical archaeological experience or expertise. Instead we have turned our attentions to something much moremanageable - the parish tithe map. Hatherleigh is lucky enough to have its own copy of the map and the apportionment from which to work, and over the last few months we have been mapping field-names onto photocopies. Once this has been completed, we plan to look at the 1839 names in relation to information dating from about 40 years ago given by past workers on one of the large estates within the parish, as well as consulting work on local field-names undertaken by the WI and dating from about the same time.
Quite accidentally this work ties in very nicely with our recent involvement with the Community Landscapes Project (CLP) based at Exeter University. With the help of the CLP, our tithe detail will soon be digitised, enabling certain aspects such as land-ownership and land-use to be plotted and mapped separately. Our group very much welcomes the input offered by the CLP for as most of our members come from a historical rather than archaeological background, we feel a definite need for the support of local bodies such as this to enable us to produce relevant and useful work. We look forward to a mutually beneficial relationship.
THE HATHERLEIGH LANDSCAPE
GROUP - Deborah Laing-Trengove
(Newsletter No 7 2004)
The past year has moved at a fairly sedate pace for the group. Most of our monthly meetings have been taken up with transcribing details from the Hatherleigh Tithe Apportionment onto A3 copied sheets of the Tithe Map itself, allowing us easy access to information for future research. This work is now all but complete.
At our January meeting we called on Terry Green and Colin Humpreys of NDAS to talk to us about field-names and to to inspire us as to what to do next! Although nothing concrete was decided at the meeting, the conversation over a pint in the local pub afterwards did inspire me to re-examine some tiles that I had found whilst walking over our local common, Hatherleigh Moor. Out of an initial small collection of rather amorphous pieces, one diagnostic piece has now been confirmed by John Allen to be part of a Roman box-flue tile (tubulus). This type of tile, which is literally box-shaped, would have formed part of a hypocaust system, functioning as a conduit for warm air and smoke within the walls of a building. Typically the tiles have a surface scored with irregular wavy lines (combing) to provide a key for wall plaster. A further look at the find-spot yielded pieces of roof tile (tegula and imbrex) as well as plain tiles that would have been stacked in pilae to support the floor.
The ceramic evidence, the close proximity to water and a large extant pit several metres from the finds all pointed towards an industrial kiln site. Bill Horner visited the site in early March and provisionally confirmed it to be a tilery. Only about a hundred of this type of site are known in the country and only one other in Devon (Exeter). Clearly this is a very exciting find for us because, as we were all long aware, “the Romans never got this far”! As the site will need to be more thoroughly investigated, it is my hope that as much of the work as possible will be carried out by local societies and professionals. To make a start we are holding a weekend of field-walking in May. Members of NDAS are invited to join us.
Looking toward the longer term, we are hoping to get a buildings project going in Hatherleigh to learn more about the development of the town and the buildings within it.We plan to survey the Bridge Inn in May/June as a taster and to provide some initial training. Finally, I must say thank you to everyone for making me welcome at my first NDAS committee meeting. I look forward to greater involvement in the Society’s activities and hope to see some of you in Hatherleigh in the near future.
Investigations at Hatherleigh: an Update - Deborah Laing-Trengove (Newsletter No 8 2004)
Since May, work on the Roman tilery site at Hatherleigh
has been progressing well. Some ACE members spent a day dowsing the site
in early May and a few weeks later we held the planned fieldwalk, focusing
on the initial find spot and an adjacent stream. As the site was not ploughed,
the area that could be searched was quite small and thanks to a very good
turn out, the work was concluded in a much shorter time than anticipated.
A grid had previously been laid out and parties of volunteers were set
to searching the grid squares on either side of the stream. They found
tile fragments, lumps of baked clay, kiln wasters - at one point in very
large numbers –and one piece of tile that appeared to have a tally
scratched on it. This was a very enjoyable as well as productive day with
hundreds of pieces of tile
collected. It was heartening to see so many local people there and a big
thank you to all those ACE and NDAS members who did so much on the day
(you know who you are!)
In order to pre-empt any unwanted intrusive activity on the site, an informal metal detector survey was carried out in June. This yielded only three horseshoes, but was worth doing as it showed that the grass growth was such as to make any activity of this sort impossible. After an impassioned plea to the CBA, prompted by some unexpected fencing work on the site, Challenge Funding was acquired for a geophysical survey.
Subsequently a fluxgate gradiometer survey was undertaken
by Ross Dean in July and the interpreted results indicate a number of
areas of interest.
To quote Ross’s report summary notes: Possible archaeological remains
in the form of a stone or masonry linear structure and ditches or similar
structures were identified in the northwest corner of the survey area.
Evidence for possible kilns or related debris deposits was found at three
separate locations within the survey area. The remains of a kiln with
a characteristic magnetic anomaly were found….Sherds of pottery
found on the ground surface during the survey and by a fieldwalking survey
support a Roman date for pottery production at the site. The north-eastern
corner of the survey area contained evidence that could be interpreted
as a settlement or other similar human activity although this is by no
means certain. Evidence for a possible track and various phases of ploughing
were also recorded.
In line with the report recommendations, we plan to carry out some further geophysical survey work in the next few months to extend the area surveyed and hope to carry out further archaeological investigations in the future.
The Hatherleigh Landscape Group has also been involved with other projects during the summer including recording gravestones in the local churchyard, an ongoing project, and concluding work on the tithe map. In June, group members with the help and tutoring of Colin Humphreys carried out a building survey at the Bridge Inn, Hatherleigh. Although this proved rather less straight forward than expected, the event generated enough interest to merit an ongoing project. There is enough local interest from residents to make the project viable and interesting, with offers of several properties to investigate in the coming year.
Hatherleigh Moor: Update Deborah Laing-Trengove (Newsletter No 11 2006)
We have previously reported on the discovery by Deborah Laing-Trengove of fragments of Roman tile near a stream on Hatherleigh Moor. In Spring 2005 NDAS members assisted with a fieldwalk during which many more fragments of Roman tile and brick were found together with suggestions of a kiln. In recent months John Allen (formerly of the RAM Museum, now of Exeter Archaeology) together with the Finds Liaison Officer for Devon has visited the site and taken away material for closer examination.
A note is to appear in the Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society. Meanwhile on the other side of the Moor another tile has been found, suggesting that this industrial site might have been quite extensive. SouthWest Water say that they need to renew some pipes across the Moor. The work will entail a watching-brief.
A Roman Tilery on Hatherleigh Moor
You may remember that in the Autumn 2004 edition of the NDAS Newsletter Deborah Laing- Trengove reported on a field-walk on Hatherleigh Moor in which NDAS members had participated.
The purpose of the day had been to locate fragments of apparently Roman
roof-tile to augment the collection that Deborah herself had made while
walking the area. In addition Ross Dean of Substratum conducted a geophysical
survey of the area. The products of the fieldwalk were taken to the RAM
Museum in Exeter and subsequently a report and analysis of the material
was published in the Devon Archaeological Society Proceedings (Vol.64,
2006). This was authored by Jennie Wheeler and Deborah Laing- Trengove
with contributions from Ross Dean, Colin Humphreys and Roger Taylor. For
your interest, a summary of their conclusions is presented here.
The material collected clearly represented tile waste of the Roman period
and from the number of wasters (overfired tiles) in the collection, the
spread of the material and the geophysical evidence of intense heating
activity, it was evident that this was the site of a tilery. The material
covered a wide area which was typical of Roman tile sites, where there
might be more than one kiln, and where waste material might be dumped
away from the main centre of activity or might be used for other purposes
such as surfacing paths. Nevertheless this site appears to represent a
small-scale operation perhaps revisited over a period of time.
This site lies in an area where no other Roman remains are recorded, the
nearest locations of Roman Period activity being at Okehampton, North
Tawton and Bury Barton (Lapford). It is also some way from the Roman road
leading into Cornwall. The isolated location may have been dictated by
the presence of the necessary resources (clay, water and wood) or the
desire to be away from centres of population. Distance from a likely market
was apparently not a problem, tiles found at Exeter and Bury Barton (Lapford)
having been transported from Hampshire.
As for dating, there was no evidence that could be used for this purpose.
Tiles of the Hatherleigh type were in use for a long period both by the
military and by civilians. However, tile production here probably dates
from earlier rather than later in the Roman period, since in the late
third and the fourth century tiles were superseded by stone slates in
Devon.
As the first tilery to be identifed in Devon outside the legionary fortress
at Exeter, the site is nevertheless important, though who the tilery was
serving is not at all certain. The fabric of the Hatherleigh Moor tiles
is distinctive however, which should, in time, make it possible to trace
the distribution of this material. So far it has only been identified
at North Tawton, though close examination of material from Okehampton
may turn up more.