MSO10951 - Medieval or post-medieval enclosure at Warren Farm (Monument)

Irregular enclosure 250 metres west of Warren Farmhouse on southwestern facing slope. Shown on 6 inch map as partly walled. [1] No walls remaining, banks 2 metres wide and up to 1 metre high. No visible entrance. Leat (MSO10941) cuts through the enclosure on upslope side. [2] Suggested by the owner that it was a garden for Warren Cottages. [3] Centred at SS79254073 are the remains of a subrectangular enclosure. It consists of a very sharply defined bank, 0.9 metres high, composed of earth and stone, forming a U shape, with the western end being open. The date and function of the feature are uncertain, but it is almost certainly post-medieval, and may have been a small paddock or enclosure for stock, or possibly a garden. Now engulfed by bracken. Surveyed at 1:2500 scale. [7] The enclosure described above is clearly visible on aerial photographs south of Warren Farm, Exmoor. In places the banks have been cut by a leat of the 19th Century water meadow, indicating that it most likely predates the 19th Century settlement at Warren Farm, and is contemporary with the nearby earthworks and pillow mounds. [8-10] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [11] The feature is depicted on the 2021 MasterMap data. [12] The feature is also shown similarly on the 25 inch 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map. A footpath is shown on the map leading up past Warren Cottages, to the northeastern boundary of the feature. [13]