MSO8056 - Post-medieval lime kiln at Bossington Beach (Building)

SS 89154 48345. The fragmentary remains of a lime kiln are located on the coast at Bossington Beach, near Porlock. This kiln has been built into the top of the north side of a steep shingle bank that skirts the beach. The remains consist principally of part of its south-west wall corner. The slightly buttressed south wall, of roughly coursed beach pebbles, is 4 metres long, 0.5 metres to 0.7 metres thick and still stands some 1.5 metres high. The west wall, consisting of footings only, is 2 metres long and 0.5 metres thick. A step in these footings, 0.7 metres wide, may be modern to accommodate a footpath. Some 8 metres north east of this corner is a fragment of similar walling. The remainder of the kiln has collapsed down the bank and is no longer evident. These are the remains of the westernmost of four kilns shown on an 1809 Bossington Estate map. They are depicted as unannotated open circles, but appear in the apportionment as 'Lime Kiln' [1]. The kiln is also shown on both the 1842 Luccombe [2] and 1841 Porlock Tithe Maps [3] as an unannotated rectangular building. It is shown on the 1889 Ordnance Survey map, though it is unannotated, so presumably it must have gone out of use by then [4]. Published Survey [5] correct. [6] The kiln is plotted and annotated on an estate map of 1876. It is therefore probable that it passed out of use between 1876 and 1889. [6] A post-medieval lime kiln, visible as a ruined building, was mapped from aerial photographs taken in 1941. Located on the top of the shingle of Bossington Beach at SS 8915 4834, the stone built lime kiln consists of one linear wall section, the southern wall aligned west-southwest to east-northeast parallel with the beach, 4.5 metres long and 0.6 metres thick. Aerial photographs taken in 1941 show that part of the west wall was extant at that time, but has subsequently collapsed. The lime kiln was still visible on aerial photographs taken in 1999. [8-10] The lime kiln was photographed by RCHME in 1996. [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. [12] The southwestern and southeastern elevations are depicted on the 2022 MasterMap data. [13] The fragmentary remains of one of three kilns to the east of a later kiln on Bossington Beach. It may have been an estate operated flare kiln. [14]