Principal Archaeological Landscape: Larkbarrow and Tom's Hill (25)

Location The area is a block of moorland within the former Royal Forest of Exmoor. It is located near to the eastern Royal Forest boundary. Long Combe runs out of the centre of the PAL with Chalk Water running out northwards. Description of Archaeology The area contains two 19th century relict farmsteads and their relict field systems, water management systems and peat cutting. These farms were created by the Knight family in the mid 19th century as part of the reclamation of the Royal Forest. A sheepfold on Kittuck Meads also dates to the same period. There are also prehistoric remains in the form of cairns and standing stones, and evidence of Mesolithic flint knapping activity beneath and adjacent to Larkbarrow Farm. The farm buildings and surrounding landscape were used for artillery training during World War Two and as such the farm buildings today survive as ruins. There is also a valley mire to the south of the ruins of Larkbarrow Farm which has high palaeo-environmental potential. Principal significance Larkbarrow is especially significant because of the preservation and completeness of the layouts of two Knight farms and their associated infrastructure. This includes field gutters, peat cutting, field boundaries (some with remnant grown out hedging), associated ballast quarries for the construction of the boundaries and the ruined farm buildings themselves. The survival of earlier prehistoric features, particularly the hunter gatherer site by Larkbarrow farmstead, in close topographical association with the valley mire makes this area of Exmoor very unusual.