MDE1240 - Bronze Age barrow southeast of Down Linhay (Monument)

(SS 7079 4859) Tumulus (NR) [1] SS 7079 4859. A bowl barrow 22.0 metres in diameter and up to 0.7 metres high. Under plough. Published survey 1:2500 correct. [2] SS 7079 4859. The remains of an earthern round barrow situated in a pasture field on the northern side of Lydiate Lane. The field has been recently mown for hay and although ploughing has blurred the precise edge of the mound its outline can be clearly seen to have diameter of about 24 metres. The field slopes gently from the north and the mound is only 0.5 metres high on this side but reaches a maximum height of about 1 metre on the south side. The barrow is eccentrically placed within a narrow encircling ditch which is 1 metre wide, 0.1 metre deep and 36 metres in diameter; it varies from 4 to 8 metres outside the edge of the mound. The north-east quadrant has disappeared otherwise the remainder of this slight ditch is quite distinct. The summit of the hill is now occupied by an Ordnance Survey Triangulation Pillar and the barrow is situated just below the crest some 130 metres to the south, so it has been deliberately sited to be seen from the area to the south and is not visible from the seaward northern side of the summit. This barrow is depicted on the 1809 1 inch, and the 1888 and 1904, 1:2500 Ordnance Survey maps. [3-8] The barrow is visible as an earthwork on aerial photographs of the 1940s onwards, centred on the coordinates stated above, and has been transcribed as part of the Exmoor National Park National Mapping Programme survey. The mound, as visible on the available aerial photographs, appears up to 10 metres smaller in diameter than the 22-4 metres mentioned by the above authorities. [9-10] Barrow lying inland just above Lynton town. Has been ploughed and was examined in 1913, proving to have consisted of acre-stones with a small over-laying stratum of soil. Seemed to have been previously excavated. No finds. [11] The barrow is on arable land. It is 30 paces in diameter and 3 feet high. [12] Currently in pasture, but field is about to be reploughed (except for barrow). In much better condition than the above suggests (?) - still a substantial mound at least 1 metre high. The mound is 34 metres east to west, 31m north to south. Farmer reports body of mound to have been 'white' when last ploughed. [14] Currently under pasture and recently mown. The barrow's diameter north to south is 33.1 metres and it is approximately 1 metre high. A shallow depression, 0.05 metres deep and 1 metre wide can be traced around the barrow making the north to south diameter of the earthwork 35.1 metres. [15] The Scheduled Monument Condition Assessment of 2009 gave the site a survival score of 3. [20] The site was surveyed in June 2015 as part of the 2015 Exmoor Scheduled Monument Condition Assessment. It was given a survival score of 0. [21] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [22]