MDE12831 - Possible reused prehistoric stone gate post north of Hoaroak Cottage (Monument)

SS 74033 43966. A large stone, now reset in the wall on the east side of the trackway to Hoaroak. It is 1.8 metres high, 0.6 metres wide at its base (tapering to a point), and 0.3 metres thick at best. Two holes containing iron gate hinge brackets are on its west face. A stone, presumably this one, is marked just to the north of the field wall on the 1890 Ordnance Survey map [1]. Eardley-Wilmot, who saw the stone when it was laid by the wall suggests that it served as a marker for the track before the fields were laid out and it was subsequently used as a gatepost [2]. The stone is somewhat pointed and angular and is not a 'typical' rectangular slab gatepost (ie reminiscent of those at the stone working site MSO7123, 1.5 kilometres to the southeast) although in slope size gateposts vary. It is possible that this stone was a waymarker, or even earlier a standing stone. Surveyed at 1:2500. [3] This post 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. It was interpreted as a stone gate post. [4] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [5]