MEM22573 - Post-medieval prospecting pit on Halscombe (Monument)

The Historic Environment Officer for the Exmoor Mires Project undertook a non-intrustive walkover survey of the proposed mire restoration area on Deer Park, which included this site. Noted was a trench orientated northwest to southeast, with banks of spoil at its north end. The feature measures 14 metres long, 3 metres wide and 0.9 metres deep, with spoil banks 1 to 2 metres wide and 0.4 metres high. A smaller trench, 80 metres long, 3 metres wide and 0.25 metres deep runs from the southeastern end to the Halscombe Water tributary and was presumably intended to drain the main working. This forms part of MEM22547. [1] A large scale metric survey of an area of earthworks on Halscombe was undertaken by Hazel Riley in 2013 as part of the Exmoor Mires Project. A linear trench was surveyed, oriented northwest-southeast with a bank of spoil at its north end. The trench is 14 metres long, 3 metres wide and 0.9 metres deep. The banks are 1 to 2 metres wide and 0.4 metres high. A shallow reed-filled linear hollow 80 metres long, 3 metres wide and 0.25 metres deep runs from the south end of the trench to the stream below and was dug to drain the trench. These earthworks are most likely to be part of Frederick Knight’s prospecting for ironstone in the southern part of Exmoor Forest and so date from the early 1850s.[2]