MSO8058 - Post-medieval lime kiln at Bossington Beach (Building)

SS 89213 48380. The fragmentary remains of a lime kiln located on the coast at Bossington Beach near Porlock. This kiln has been built into the top of the northern side of a steep turf covered shingle bank skirting the beach. The remains are only superficial and as such are now unidentifiable as a lime kiln. They consist of a section of foundations, about 2 metres long and 0.4 metres thick, of small pebbles set in a reddish clay, capped by a limestone layer 0.1 metre thick. Above this is a layer of turf. Down the slope some 5 metres to the northeast is a similar pebbly fragment and part of a limestone layer. The remainder of the kiln is no longer evident. These are the remains of the second (from the east) of four (See MSO8056, MSO8057 and MSO8059) kilns shown on an 1809 Bossington Estate map [1]. They are depicted as unannotated open circles but appear in the apportionment as 'Lime Kiln'. The kiln is also shown on both the 1842 Luccombe [2] and 1841 Porlock Tithe Maps [3] as an unannotated rectangular building. It is not shown on the 1889 Ordnance Survey map [4] so presumably it must have gone out of use before then [5]. No survey action. [6] The kiln is depicted on the Holnicote estate map of 1876, indicating that it probably passed out of use between 1876 and 1889. [7] The lime kiln was photographed by the RCHME in 1996. [8] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [9] 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. [10]