The Historic Landscape of the Quantock Hills The Historic Landscape of the Quantock Hills Hazel Riley with illustrations by Elaine Jamieson Contents Illustrations vi 4 A managed landscape? Foreword by Lady Gass and Chris Edwards vii The Quantock Hills in the Acknowledgements viii medieval period 77 Summary ix Resumé x The migration and early medieval periods: Zusamenfassung xi Britons and Anglo-Saxons 77 Introduction xii The later medieval period: lords of the manor 85 1 A special place? The landscape of the Quantock Hills 1 5 A Romantic landscape? Cheerful beauty: the natural landscape 1 The Quantock Hills in the post-medieval period 115 The man-made landscape 6 A changing landscape: enclosure, The English Heritage archaeological survey improvement and industry 115 of the Quantock Hills AONB 14 Gardens bright with sinuous rills: designed landscapes on the Quantock Hills 115 2 A ritual landscape? The early prehistory of the A working landscape: farms, farming and Quantock Hills 15 industry in the Quantock Hills 127 Handaxes and early humans in the Lower Palaeolithic period 15 6 A remembered landscape? The Quantock Hills in the The ice was all around: climate change and the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic periods 15 20th century 152 Hunters in the forest: the Mesolithic period 18 A rural idyll? The Quantock Hills in the early 20th century 152 Landscapes of death and life in the Neolithic period 19 The Second World War and the Cold War: the Quantock Hills in the later The Bronze Age: funerary and mundane 20th century 153 landscapes 28 A changing landscape? The historic The funerary landscape: Bronze Age burial landscape of the Quantock Hills in the monuments 30 21st century 159 The mundane landscape: Bronze Age settlement 43 Appendix 1: Site gazetteer 162 3 A defended landscape? The Quantock Hills in Iron Age Appendix 2: English Heritage Quantock project and Roman times 51 survey reports 163 Beyond the pale of civilisation: the Iron Age 51 References 164 Business as usual? The Roman occupation 72 Index 168 v Illustrations i.1 Time-line 3.17* Cropmarks, Dene Cross 5.13 Grotto on 1778 map 1.1 The Quantock Hills 3.18* Cropmarks, Upper Cheddon 5.14 Weacombe: tree ring enclosures 1.2* The Quantock Hills: location map 3.19* Hillslope enclosures, Broomfield 5.15 Tree ring enclosures 1.3* The Quantock Hills: topography and relief 3.20* Cropmarks, Clavelshay 5.16 Beacon Tower, Cothelstone Hill 1.4 The Quantock Hills: geology 3.21* Multi-phase cropmarks, Goathurst 5.17 Conifer plantations, Smith’s Combe 1.5 Cottages, Over Stowey 3.22 Excavations at Volis Hill 5.18* The Quantock Hills: agriculture 1.6 Medieval buildings, Kilve 3.23 Roman forts and roads and mining 1.7 The foreshore, Kilve 3.24 Excavations at Yarford 5.19* Relict field systems 1.8 Heath and woodland 3.25 Mosaic at Yarford 5.20 Lydeard Hill: shelters and cairns 1.9 Swaling on Quantock common 3.26 West Bagborough hoard 5.21 Beacon Hill: relict field systems 1.10 Quantock commons 5.22 Court House: farm buildings 1.11* The Quantock Hills: land use and historic 4.1 Stoneage Barton post-Roman cemetery 5.23 Outbarn, Deak’s Allers commons 4.2* The Quantock Hills: Anglo-Saxon sites 5.24 Combe Farm: 1797 map 1.12** Crowcombe Court 4.3 St Decuman’s Church 5.25 Deserted farmsteads 1.13 ‘The Old Gate’, Halsway Manor 4.4 Anglo-Saxon coins from Watchet mint 5.26* Broomfield: deserted settlements 1.14 Surveying the Trendle Ring 4.5 Rooks Castle: enclosure and quarries 5.27 Ivyton Farm 4.6 Coastal settlements 5.28 Catch-water meadows, North Stream 2.1 Doniford and West Quantoxhead 4.7 Stogursey Castle 5.29 Lime burner’s shelter, Hawkridge 2.2* The Quantock Hills: Palaeolithic and 4.8 Sir Matthew de Stawell, Cothelstone Common Mesolithic artefacts Church 5.30 Lime kiln, Aisholt 2.3 Palaeolithic handaxe 4.9 Kingston St Mary Church 5.31 Merridge: limekilns 2.4* The Quantock Hills: Neolithic artefacts 4.10 Medieval door surround, Court House 5.32 Oak woodland, Holford Combe and sites 4.11* The Quantock Hills: medieval sites 5.33* Holford Combe and Hodder’s Combe: 2.5 Neolithic stone axe 4.12 Nether Stowey charcoal burning platforms 2.6 Norton Fitzwarren 4.13 Nether Stowey Castle: earthwork plan 5.34 Charcoal burning platforms: plans 2.7* Battlegore barrow cemetery 4.14 Nether Stowey: 1750 map 5.35 Charcoal burning in Slaughterhouse 2.8 Battlegore, portal dolmen 4.15 Manorial earthworks Combe 2.9* Pit circle, Langford 4.16 Adscombe Chapel c 1903 5.36 Nether Stowey tan yard 2.10 The Long Stone and Triscombe Stone 4.17 Adscombe Chapel: window surround 5.37 Tom Poole’s bark house 2.11 Westleigh urn 4.18 East Quantoxhead: medieval landscape 5.38 Hayman’s Pool 2.12* The Quantock Hills: Bronze Age sites 4.19 East Quantoxhead: deer park and rabbit 5.39 Drying loft, Tanyard Farm and artefacts warren 5.40 Marsh Mills 2.13 Hurley Beacon 4.20 Pillow mounds 5.41 Marsh Mills silk factory 2.14 Barrows 4.21 Cothelstone: the medieval landscape 5.42 Dye house, Holford 2.15 Cairns 4.22 East Quantoxhead: 1827 map 5.43 Openworks 2.16* Barrow groups 4.23 Manor Cottages, Cothelstone 5.44 Engine houses and shafts 2.17 Platform cairns 4.24 Manorial enclosures 5.45 Beech grove engine house 2.18 Beacon Hill 4.25 Medieval gatehouse, Court House 5.46 Rural industry 2.19 Ring cairns and embanked platform cairns 4.26 Reconstruction of medieval manor, Kilve 2.20* Black Hill barrow cemetery 4.27 Deserted farmsteads 6.1 Oil retort, Kilve 2.21 Black Hill barrow cemetery: detail plans 4.28 Holcombe and Aisholt Common 6.2 Communication post, West Kilton Farm 2.22 The western scarp of the Quantock Hills 4.29 Higher Aisholt Farm 6.3* Tank training range, West Kilton Farm 2.23* Wills Neck barrow cemetery 4.30 Domescombe 6.4 Blast-proof shelter, Lilstock 2.24 Wills Neck: cairn enclosure 4.31 Deak’s Allers: earthwork plan 6.5* PoW camps 2.25 Reconstruction of Bronze Age funeral pyre 4.32 Middle Halsway Farm 6.6 Searchlight battery, Crowcombe Gate 2.26 Greenway: prehistoric settlement 4.33 Bicknoller: enclosed strip fields 6.7 Wooden toy made by PoW 2.27 West Hill: prehistoric settlement 4.34 Nether Stowey: strip fields in 1750 6.8 Bunker, Cothelstone Hill 2.28* Linear earthworks 4.35 Windmill mound 6.9 ROC post, Holford 2.29* Linear earthworks, barrows and cairns 4.36 Miller, Bishops Lydeard Church 6.10 Stable block, Friarn 4.37 Stock ponds 3.1* The Quantock Hills: Iron Age and 4.38 Withyman’s Pool Roman sites 4.39 Textile worker, Spaxton Church Images (except as otherwise shown) © English 3.2* Ruborough Camp: earthwork plan Heritage 3.3 Ruborough Camp: the ramparts 5.1 Cothelstone Manor: gatehouse 3.4 Dowsborough Camp: the hillfort 5.2 Cothelstone Manor: early post-medieval * These maps are based upon Ordnance 3.5* Dowsborough Camp: earthwork plan layout. Survey maps, drawn by English Heritage with 3.6 Dragon, Crowcombe Church 5.3 Cothelstone Manor: formal gardens the permission of the Ordnance Survey on 3.7 Bicknoller Hill: the hilltop enclosure 5.4* The Quantock Hills: the designed behalf of The Controller of Her Majesty’s 3.8* Bicknoller Hill: earthwork plan landscape Stationery Office, © Crown copyright. 3.9 Cropmark complex, Yarford 5.5 17th-century formal gardens All rights reserved. Unauthorised reproduction 3.10* The Trendle Ring: earthwork plan 5.6 Crowcombe Court: 1767 map infringes Crown copyright and may lead to 3.11* Plainsfield Camp: earthwork plan 5.7 Crowcombe Park prosecution or civil proceedings. Licence 3.12 Rooks Castle: enclosures 5.8 Crowcombe Park: Gothic folly Number GD030859G. 3.13* Rooks Castle: earthwork plan 5.9 Fyne Court: folly 3.14* Higher Castles: earthwork plan 5.10 Terhill House: 1778 map ** Every effort has been made to seek 3.15 Higher Castles: the enclosure 5.11* Terhill Park permission to reproduce this image from the 3.16 Reconstruction of Iron Age life 5.12 Terhill Park: grotto copyright holder. vi Foreword Somerset’s Quantock Hills form a richly complex landscape that has There is much to discover and to learn from this important been shaped by human activity over many thousands of years. In book. It deserves to be widely welcomed and appreciated both within 1956 the Quantocks became England’s first Area of Outstanding the county of Somerset and beyond. Natural Beauty, in recognition of their very special qualities, and it is Having known and loved the Quantocks all my life it is a partic- appropriate in this fiftieth anniversary year that the hills should be ular pleasure to be writing this foreword. recorded and interpreted in a splendid new archaeological survey. The survey has been undertaken by English Heritage and is published at a moment when the hills face great pressures and chal- lenges. English Heritage and all those involved are to be congratu- Elizabeth Gass lated for bringing the survey to completion and for making the Lord Lieutenant of Somerset information it contains widely accessible and in so attractive a form. June 2006 On a late February afternoon in 1798, three people – brother, sister Service continued to support the project throughout its duration. and friend – climbed an Iron Age hillfort in the Quantocks and I further hope the result achieved here strengthens the Historic looked down on ‘a magnificent scene, curiously spread out for even Environment Accord signed by the National Association of AONBs minute inspection’. Many times during her research for this out- and English Heritage in December 2004. All credit for the archaeo- standing book Hazel must have stood in Dorothy Wordsworth’s logical survey, research and writing goes to Hazel with the support of footsteps on Dowsborough Camp and looked out, seeing the history Elaine Jamieson and other English Heritage staff. Jane Brayne was in this special landscape. That the Quantocks still have extraordinary commissioned by the AONB Service to paint images of the crystal clear days, and that they retain an unspoilt landscape the Quantocks in the Bronze Age, Iron Age, medieval and post-medieval Wordsworths and Coleridge would instantly recognise, is a source of periods, which put people in the foreground of the historic land- great satisfaction to many. scape. Thanks are also due to the supporting partnership. This level More than 400,000 recreational visits are made to the of research requires decent financial support, and while English Quantock Hills each year, indicating a remarkable focus of attrac- Heritage provided the majority of funds a significant contribution tion. The Quantock mix of wooded slopes and open hilltops creates came from a range of funding partners including Somerset County a natural-feeling sense of wildness in a scale of landscape found Council, the National Trust, the Friends of Quantock organisation, unthreatening by most people. All British landscapes are historic but the Fairfield Estate and the AONB Service. The AONB Service is here the casual walker enjoys almost prehistoric environments of itself funded by a partnership between West Somerset District, heath, birch and oak alongside medieval farmland, 1000-year-old Sedgemoor District, Taunton Deane Borough and Somerset County hedgerows and 18th-century designer deer parks that still echo with Councils, and the Countryside Agency. the roaring of stags during the autumn deer rut. Beyond purely Despite a changing population and the information age many aesthetic appreciation and potential wildlife encounters, this historic Quantock people still have an unconscious sense of historical landscape gives a satisfying sense of consistency and permanence connection, which was picked up in a 1934 Somerset guidebook to the visitor. Geology is the canvas, but the historic landscape is published by the Great Western Railway Company. Author Maxwell the image constructed by millennia of varied land use. This book Fraser wrote: ‘In no part of England is history a more living, vital is the story of that still-evolving relationship between people and thing than in Quantoxland, where the thrilling stories of battles the Quantocks. which took place a thousand years ago, and the romances and The Quantock Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty scandals of as far back as the sixteenth century, are remembered, (AONB) is recognised internationally as a Category V Protected retold and commented upon by villagers ...as though they were of Area, highlighting the extent to which human land use has created recent occurrence...’ and continues to maintain the landscape’s distinctive appearance The Historic Landscape of the Quantock Hills, and the research and wildlife interest. The Quantocks were the first area in England from which it has been distilled, adds fundamentally to the sum of to receive AONB designation, in May 1956, making 2006 the understanding of this precious landscape, ensuring that the story 50th anniversary of this event. Fifty years is a small step in the of these hills will continue to be told with increasing accuracy. development of this landscape, however it is a conscious step to I thank English Heritage and specifically Hazel Riley and her understand and protect the natural and cultural elements that give colleagues for the two and a half years of all-weather effort and the Quantocks their special status. Understanding the historic commitment it has taken. significance of this AONB informs appropriate management and inspires greater awareness and support in both resident and visitor. I hope the work of the AONB Service helped attract English Heritage to the Quantocks, and special mention goes to Somerset Chris Edwards, Manager County Archaeologist Bob Croft who was instrumental in setting up Quantock Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty the project. The Somerset County Council Historic Environment October 2005 vii Acknowledgements The Quantock Hills archaeological survey project and this book I am indebted to Barry Jones for his hard work looking at the would have been very different were it not for the timely appointment buildings in the Quantock Hills and for the many hours of discus- of Elaine Jamieson to English Heritage in 2001. Elaine not only sion about those buildings in relation to the archaeology surround- shouldered the burden of half the fieldwork for the project but she ing them. Barry undertook major pieces of work at Kilve and Court also designed and produced the figures in this book, completed most House and was always ready to answer questions ranging from of the archive plans, undertook the design and illustration of the ‘what date is that farm building?’ to ‘how old is this fragment of survey reports and somehow found the time to carry out extensive worked stone?’ Mike Williams and Sheila Ely investigated several of research on sites at Kilve, Court House, Fyne Court, Plainsfield Camp the industrial buildings which are tucked away in some surprising and the landscapes around East Quantoxhead and Crowcombe. corners of the Quantock Hills. I am also grateful for Elaine’s careful reading of sections of the book at draft stage, and for her many helpful comments and suggestions I remain humbled by the ability of Peter Williams, Damian Grady throughout the project. and Jane Brayne to turn my faltering ideas about the visualisation of The Quantock Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) the historic landscape into such stunning images. Peter undertook Service have been unfailingly helpful during the course of the project. the record photography for the project, including collections of Chris Edwards was instrumental in instigating the field survey and photographs at Court House and Cothelstone, as well as most of the publication, never tired of discussing things Quantockian and the photography for this book. Damian was the only member of the read through the draft text. The whole team helped with access project team to experience the Quantock Hills landscape from the arrangements, site clearance and, in particular, the section on Bronze air but his photographs convey that experience to those of us who Age settlement on the hills would have been very short were it not for keep our feet on the ground. I asked with mixed feelings for Jane’s the co-operation of the Rangers and their willingness to be shown contribution, due to several comments best summed up as: ‘the best ‘a series of small walls’ so that their annual programme of swaling things in the Exmoor book were the reconstruction drawings’. (controlled heather burning) could be co-ordinated with our fieldwork However, I swallowed my pride and I hope that many more such on the commons. I am especially grateful to Andy Harris and Ella comments will follow the publication of Jane’s images based on the Briens who arranged several events on the hills, which gave me the Quantock Hills landscape. opportunity to engage with both local people and visitors about our The project could not have happened without the co-operation survey work. The Quantock Hills office at Nether Stowey provided a of local landowners and their tenants. I would like to thank Lady welcome refuge from rain, snow and sun. The Quantock Hills Gass of the Fairfield Acland Estate for her help in getting the AONB, Somerset County Council and the Friends of Quantock project started, for allowing access across the estate, for discussions financial contributions to the field survey and to this publication are about the estate and the history of copper mining on the Quantock gratefully acknowledged here. Hills. The estate also provided a financial contribution towards the Taunton lies on the southern edge of the Quantock Hills, it is project, which is gratefully acknowledged here. Colonel Sir Walter also the repository of a huge amount of published and unpublished Luttrell of the East Quantoxhead Estate allowed us to investigate information about Somerset. I would like to thank David Bromwich not only the farms, fields and common lands of the estate but of the Somerset Studies Library and staff in the Somerset Archive also the buildings at Court House and Kilve. He proved to be an and Record Service for helping me to find my way around the books inexhaustible source of both historical fact and anecdote and Elaine and documents. Chris Webster of the Somerset Historic Environment and myself would like to thank him and his wife for their kindness Service supplied all of the material from the Somerset Historic while we were working at Court House. I would also like to thank Environment Record needed at the beginning of the project and Anthony Trollope Bellow for discussions about, and access to, helped with the interpretation of some of the military archaeology. Crowcombe Park; Hugh and Jane Warmington whose knowledge Steve Minnitt of Somerset County Museums Service facilitated of the Cothelstone Estates could fill another book and Mary White access to the collections at Taunton. of Durborough Farm, without whom the lost farmstead of Hamme I am fortunate to have worked with several of my colleagues in would have remained lost. Nigel Garnsworthy and Tim Beazley the Exeter Office of English Heritage for many years and I would like helped with access on the National Trust Quantock Hills Estate, to thank them for sharing their experience of field archaeology in and the National Trust contributed financially towards the project. southwest England with me. Martin Fletcher helped with some of the Nick Salter facilitated access to Forestry Commission land. Many field survey; Phil Newman surveyed the Trendle Ring and the copper other landowners allowed us to walk over their fields and farmyards mines at Dodington; Ben Moore worked at Kenley Copse, Nether and kept us supplied with coffee. Stowey Castle and Marsh Mills, and undertook research on limekilns The chapter on the 20th-century landscape would have been for the project. John Winterburn considered some of the relict field very short without the memories of several people who lived and systems on the Quantock Hills as part of his dissertation topic. Helen worked on the Quantock Hills during the Second World War and Winton made John’s work possible, as she carried out the mammoth the Cold War. Jack Ash and his sister, Jean, lived at West Kilton task of mapping the whole of the Quantock Hills from air Farm when the American army commandeered part of it for a photographs. Louise Martin commissioned the geophysical survey at tank training range; Peter White was stationed at Crowcombe Over Stowey and Martin Papworth of the National Trust carried out Court with 493 Battery of the 76th Searchlight Unit between 1941 geophysical work at the Trendle Ring for the project. and 1944; Mr R A Lawry was a member of the Royal Observer viii