MMO2230 - Post-medieval quarry or extractive pit on South Regis Common (Monument)

A medieval or post-medieval quarry or extractive pit is visible on aerial photographs as an earthwork. A post-medieval field boundary overlies the quarried area. It is possible that an earlier adit was subject to later quarrying.

An old quarry is shown on the six inch 1905 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey may and on the six inch 1963 map. [1,2] A medieval or post-medieval quarry or extractive pit is visible on aerial photographs as an earthwork on Shoulsbarrow Common, Challacombe. Centred at approximately SS 7140 4029, two irregular pits are visible, measuring 15 and 21 metres across. The ground surrounding the pits is uneven, possibly as a result of spoil being dumped here. The quarries are depicted on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map and annotated as "old quarry," suggesting they had been abandoned prior to publication in 1890. A post-medieval field boundary overlies the quarried area. It is not apparent from the aerial photographs what material was extracted here, but building stone would be the most likely material. [3-5] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [6] An extractive pit marked on historic mapping as an old quarry but not shown on the Tithe Map. The eastern part of the remains clearly has an elongated spoil tip and the largest has a 'tail' that could be following a lode. MMO2185 to the north is broadly aligned and may follow the same mineral vein. The hedgebanks appear to be punched through the area of disturbance and divide the pits, which suggests the site of extraction predates the enclosure of the fields. The western section is deeper and with more ragged edges than the eastern part; it may have been reopened and deepened to provide stone for the hedgebanks. The quarry is in good condition, with moss and some grass encroachment but lots of exposed loose stone in its base. In 2019 it was proposed to temporarily reopen the pit and extract around 200 cubic metres of stone, with access from the track and bridleway to the north and northeast and probably running up the boundary to the east of the field. This was suggested to have possible setting concerns for the adjacent barrows (one of which is Scheduled), including noise and disturance and a change in the landscape view. As an asset, the quarry itself would be utterly transformed and irrevocably so. If this is excavated further as a quarry but is in fact associated with mineral extraction, then by quarrying here the understanding and interpretation of this asset will be changed and its relationships with the pits to the east will be affected. A full ground survey of the heritage asset was suggested to understand the narrative of the quarry and potential earlier adit. Further more detailed field survey was also suggested for the wider site. [7] The pit on the western side of the field boundary was visited during a walkover survey for the Exmoor Mires Partnership in 2018. The quarry pit is 12m NE/SW, 9.2m NW/SE and up to 1.5m deep. Two stony mounds to the NW of the pit are probably mounds of spoil from the quarry. To the east of the field boundary is a similar, larger quarry which is shown on the 1st edition OS map (1888) as ‘Old Quarry.’ The quarries are most likely to be stone quarries associated with the mid19th-century enclosure of the commons. [8]