Jeremy Butler in his 'Atlas of Dartmoor Antiquities, Vol 2 - The North' tells us that the site of Metherall Farm was occupied at least as far back as the Bronze Age, with perhaps a continuity broken only by comparatively short intervals, down to the present. Some of the field walls have been rebuilt on the earliest foundations either as bank and ditch, or later drystone walling. The lower fields alongside the South Teign river are now submerged by the reservoir, but the prehistoric settlement covered a large area extending uphill from the river bank to the lines of orthostats, one of them including the Heath Stone, beyond the present enclosures south of the road.
Eight large huts, all with diameters over 7.5m, survive within the fields, some probably re-used as farm buildings at various periods and two of them certainly by the tinners as workshops or stores in the sixteenth century. Four huts are now submerged close to the edge of the reservoir, though these periodically reappear when the water level falls in summer. Despite some nineteenth century damage to their walls by stone workers, most of them are in excellent condition and give a good idea how spacious such dwellings could be. They were much admired by the early Dartmoor writers and the settlement was one of the first on the Moor to receive a detailed description.
(In this section is a plan showing the positions of the eight huts, each one numbered for reference. The ones in my photos of 12 August 06 are Numbers.4, 5 and 6. Number 4 is the one second closest to the water, Number 5 is the one in the water, and Number 6 is the one 'most high-and-dry'. The other one that I didn't photograph that is usually submerged is No.3, and may be glimpsed in the photo of Hut 5, looking towards a more north-eastern direction. I'll copy the plan and post it later.)
Butler goes on to describe how R H Worth excavated Huts 1-5 in 1934-6 prior to the flooding of the reservoir. Huts 2, 3 and 4 seemed to be the best: a flint spear-head and a hammer or whetstone, Bronze Age pottery shards and a scatter of charcoal, pot-boilers, etc., were found, though less remained in Hut 1, where the floor was more disturbed.
Worth concluded that the exceptionally large circle [No.] 5 (10.1m) was the remains of a cairn with all the small stones removed, though in appearance it is not dissimilar to the huts. He found that the wall-stones on the inside were set more evenly than normal and were shorter than those forming the outer face, and that there was an inner ring of small slabs. The wall on the south edge where the entrance to a hut would be expected was too badly damaged to determine the matter. The only probably contemporary finds were some flint chips and four quartz crystals, but none of the usual household waste such as pottery or charcoal. Beneath the rubble floor another exceptional feature was a large flat slab covering a shallow depression in the subsoil containing charcoal, which Worth interpreted as an interment pit.
Hut 6 (7.4m) is also submerged but, like [No.] 7 (8.4m) and [No.] 8 (8.6m) within the fields uphill, has not been excavated. Huts 3 and 4 were later re-used by tinners, evidence of their occupation overlaying the Bronze Age finds.
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