MSO7124 - 19th Century trial pit overlooking Hoaroak Water (Monument)

Roughly opposite the sheepfold on the shoulder of the slope is a circular pit with a spoil heap. [1] SS7490 4235. A trial pit, similar to MSO6982. Situated in rough grassland at the top of steep slopes, about 420 metres above ordnance datum, overlooking the Hoaroak Water is an excavated conical hollow, 5.5 metres in diameter and 1.4 metres deep. It has an adjacent spoil heap on the south-west side forming a turf-covered earth and stone mound, 6 metres in diameter and 1.2 metres high. It appears to be relatively modern. There are exploratory mineral trials and small quarried areas nearby at SS 7433 4303 (MSO7125) worked in the period 1857-58 and this may be a contemporary trial pit. (2) This site is mentioned in the 2013 report by Hazel Riley, a field survey and synthesis of previous projects in the Hoaroak Valley, funded by the Exmoor Moorland Landscape Partnership Scheme. [3] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [4]