MSO11037 - Post-medieval pillow mound on Dry Hill (Monument)

Linear mound at SS 8003 4042, lying obliquely across hill slope. 25 paces long and 9 paces wide, c 1.4 metres high. Slightly rounded profile with steep sides with some disturbance at wouthwestern end. [1] Probably associated with 7 others to the west (MSO10930-36). [5] SS 794 407; SS 7941 4086 [6]. At least four prominent pillow mounds have been located on the slopes south of Warren Farm, and are orientated north-south down the slope (see plan) similar to examples on Dartmoor. They are possibly of 16th or 17th century date and may have been accompanied, as on Dartmoor, by a warrener's house and outbuildings. There are possible remains of buildings at SS 794406 and of a pound at SS 792408. [6,7] A group of eight pillow mounds, centred at SS 7950 4065, on the south facing slopes of the Exe Valley below Warren Farm. The mounds are spread out along the valley side over a distance of 1 kilometre. They are all well defined, consisting of a linear mound, sometimes with flanking ditches. Half of the mounds lie across the contour (or run up-and-down the natural slope), the other half lie obliquely to the direction of the natural slope. All of the mounds are well preserved, although three of them have been cut through by later catchwater leats (MSO10939). The mounds cannot be precisely dated, although they are alleged to originate in the 16th or 17th Centuries. A group of earthwork platforms may represent the former Warrener's cottage (MSO10937). Surveyed at 1:2500 scale. Mound 8. Centred at SS 8008 4041, it is 21.3 metres long, 7.2 metres wide and 1.8 metres high. [8,9] A series of earthwork shapes are depicted in this area on the 2018 MasterMap data; however, they are not labelled and one that occupies the approximate mapped area for the pillow mound is shown on a differing orientation. [10] The mound appears to show at SS 8007 4040 as an earthwork on 2017 aerial photographs. [11] The mound was transcribed from aerial photographs by the National Mapping Project. [12-14] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [15,16]