Local List: 19th century lime kiln at Bossington Beach

The kiln, a typical draw kiln constructed of roughly coursed stone blocks and large beach pebbles, is built into the south side of a massive shingle bank. Basically rectangular in plan it measures 10 metres east to west by 7 metres with five buttresses, three supporting the south wall and one each at the south corners of the east and west walls.Four kilns are shown near this site on an 1809 Bossington Estate map. They are depicted as unannotated open circles but appear in the apportionment as 'Lime Kiln'. Three of these kilns are also shown on the 1842 Tithe Map as unannotated rectangular buildings (see MSO8056, MSO8057, MSO8058, and MSO8059). Field survey shows that this is not one of those four kilns, which were situated some 50 metres to 150 metres further to the east. So this kiln must have been constructed after 1842. It is not known when the kiln was last used but it is shown on the 1889 Ordnance Survey map annotated 'Old Limekiln, so it must have gone out of use by then. The heritage asset was assessed for inclusion on the Exmoor Local Heritage List in November 2022. It was decided to add the asset to the Local Heritage List.