MEM22572 - Post-medieval prospecting pit on Halscombe (Monument)

The Historic Environment Officer for the Exmoor Mires Project undertook a non-intrustive walkover survey of the proposed mire restoration area on Deer Park, which included this site. Noted was a northwest to southeast orientated trench with spoil banks on each side. It measures 17 metres long, 3 metres wide and 1 metre deep with banks 3 metres wide and 0.4 metres high. A smaller, silted-up ditch, 75 metres long, 3 metres wide and 0.25 metres deep runs from its southeastern end to the Halscombe water tributary and was probably dug for drainage purposes. This forms part of MEM22547. [1] A large scale metric survey of an area of earthworks on Halscombe was undertaken by Hazel Riley in 2013 as part of the Exmoor Mires Project. A linear trench was surveyed, oriented northwest-southeast with banks of spoil on each side. The trench is 17 metres long, 3 metres wide and 1 metre deep. The banks are 3 metres wide and 0.4 metres high. A shallow reed-filled linear hollow 75 metres long, 3 metres wide and 0.25 metres deep runs from the south end of the trench to the stream below and was dug to drain the trench. These earthworks are most likely to be part of Frederick Knight’s prospecting for ironstone in the southern part of Exmoor Forest and so date from the early 1850s. [2]