<< Our Photo Pages >> Bellever Tor NE Settlement - Ancient Village or Settlement in England in Devon
Submitted by Andy B on Friday, 28 August 2009 Page Views: 23300
Multi-periodSite Name: Bellever Tor NE SettlementCountry: England
NOTE: This site is 0.973 km away from the location you searched for.
County: Devon Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Tavistock / Chagford Nearest Village: Bellever
Map Ref: SX64867675
Latitude: 50.574816N Longitude: 3.909887W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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Andy B has visited here
Despite the tough conditions, Hughes and his team are relishing working on the Bellever roundhouse. "It's a great project for us," he says. "It's a chance to really try to find out what was going on here 3,500 years ago."
There are lots of roundhouses on Dartmoor (5,000 stone ones and more wooden ones that have rotted away without leaving any trace), but most were studied a century or more ago. They used to dig one a day then, rather than taking weeks over it as they do now.
So when two years ago a great storm felled a plantation of conifers at Bellever, disturbing the roundhouse's granite structure, archaeologists argued that they ought to have another look. It is an exciting project: only the second roundhouse to be excavated in the area in the last 20 years and a chance to learn more about the people who, at a time when the climate was much more clement than it is now, were able to live and work here.
By the time the bronze-age people arrived on Dartmoor, the slopes had been cleared of trees so that crops could be grown and animals – cattle and sheep – grazed. Blocks of land may have been controlled by groupings of people or tribes. Some of the roundhouses have porches, protection against the weather, others seem to have been divided into rooms. Roofs built from timber may have been covered in turf, heather, gorse or thatch.
In October 2011, the Dartmoor National Park Authority commissioned a small excavation here by a professional firm of consultants, AC Archaeology. Just under a quarter of the house, which has a diameter of 8m, was dug but many interesting and well-preserved features, including a mysterious nearby cairn and well-preserved paved flooring made up of granite slabs, were found.
Source: The Guardian
Update August 2019: This settlement is featured on the Prehistoric Dartmoor Walks (PDW) website - see their entry for Bellever Settlement. This settlement and related field system are also scheduled as Historic England List ID 1018512 and recorded as Pastscape Monument No. 442623.
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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
385m W 279° Bellever Tor N Settlement* Ancient Village or Settlement (SX64487682)
451m NNW 340° Lakehead Hill Cairn 8* Cairn (SX6471777178)
604m NNW 332° Lakehead Hill South Hut Circle* Ancient Village or Settlement (SX6459177291)
655m NNW 346° Lakehead Hill Cairn 7* Cairn (SX6471477389)
669m NNW 345° Lakehead Hill SE Stone Row* Stone Row / Alignment (SX64707740)
820m WSW 248° Bellever Tor Cairn one* Cist (SX6408976465)
864m SW 235° Bellever Tor 2* Cairn (SX6414076270)
873m NW 308° Lakehead Hill South West Stone Row / Alignment (SX64187730)
874m NW 324° Lakehead Hill 6* Cairn (SX6435877467)
897m NW 324° Lakehead Hill 5* Stone Circle (SX6434677486)
927m NNW 335° Lakehead Hill E* Stone Row / Alignment (SX6449577603)
966m NNW 330° Lakehead Hill* Stone Row / Alignment (SX644776)
1.0km NNW 331° Lakehead Hill W* Stone Row / Alignment (SX6437977653)
1.1km NW 326° Lakehead Hill 2* Cist (SX6425077696)
1.1km NNW 332° Lakehead Cairn Circle 1* Ring Cairn (SX6435677766)
1.2km SW 232° Bellever Tor 3* Cairn (SX63917606)
1.2km WSW 250° Black Newtake Enclosure Ancient Village or Settlement (SX63707636)
1.2km SW 233° Bellever Tor 4* Ring Cairn (SX63867603)
1.3km SW 226° Bellever Tor 6* Cist (SX63897585)
1.3km SW 215° Bellever Tor 10* Cist (SX64077568)
1.4km SSE 165° Laughter Tor row 2* Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue (SX65207538)
1.4km SSE 164° Laughter Tor Longstone* Standing Stone (Menhir) (SX65227538)
1.4km SW 223° Bellever Tor 8 Cairn (SX63847572)
1.5km NNW 341° Kraps Ring* Ancient Village or Settlement (SX64427814)
1.5km SSE 159° Laughter Tor row 1* Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue (SX65377532)
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