MSO6734 - Lark Barrow (Monument)

At SS 8230 4143 a mound is shown [2],[4] and named "Lark Barrow" or "Larks Barrow"[1]. The Barrow must have been destroyed and the material used in making the stone banks when the fields were enclosed in the 1850s. [3] [1-5] There are no certain remains of this barrow, but it is possible that a segment of it survives in the angle subdivided by two field walls at SS 82284147. Here there is a grass covered mound 0.9m high, but its date relative to the field walls cannot be determined by visual inspection. Surveyed at 1:2500. [6] SS 8228 4147: Exford 7. Lark Barrow is c. 16 paces in diameter and 3 feet high. A segment is left in the northeastern angle of wall junction and the surviving part, about a quarter, is 8 yards across. It had various names throughout the 17th and 18th Centuries. [7] MacDermot [8] in 1911 wrote that there was no sign of Lark Barrow but it formerly stood not far from the head of Spraccombe or Orchard Bottom. It was mentioned in the Forest Perambulations of 1651 and 1851 in use as a boundary marker, and by Thomas Pearse in 1678 as one of the principal boundaries of Exmoor Forest. [8] The remains of Lark Barrow are centred at SS 8229 4146. They are now overlain by a junction of field boundaries, one of which marks the parish boundary separating Exford from Exmoor. The remains lie predominantly within Exford parish and now consist of a very slight swelling some 22 metres in diameter and 0.4 metres high. The mound is overlain by a farm track running adjacent to the parish boundary, southwestwards from Larkbarrow Corner. The mounding described by [6] within the northeast angle of the field junction, may be partly caused by the field boundaries themselves, but undoubtedly contains barrow fabric. [9] Lark Barrow is as described by [9]. [10-11] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [13]