MEM22577 - Post-medieval leat 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 narrow channel with a bank on its lower edge which runs from a tributary stream of Halscombe Water east and northeast along the northwest side of Halscombe for 300 metres. The channel is 1.5 metres wide and 0.4 metres deep, while the bank is 1 to 2 metres wide and 0.25 metres high. This is a contour leat constructed to transport water from the stream possibly to the small enclosures to the north above Halscombe plantation. It is cut by features which could date to around 1850 and also cuts prehistoric features. It may date to the early 19th Century. [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 narrow channel with a bank on its lower edge which runs from a tributary stream of Halscombe Water east and northeast along the northeast side of Halscombe for 300 metres was surveyed. The channel is 1.5 metres wide and 0.4 metres deep; the bank is 1 to 2 metres wide and 0.25 metres high. This a water channel or contour leat constructed to take water from a tributary stream of Halscombe Water across the northeast side of Halscombe. It may be associated with the small enclosures to the north, above Halscombe Plantation, called Mount Pleasant in the late 19th Century and perhaps dating from the early 19th Century and John Knight. The channel is cut by features which date from the early 1850s and overlies prehistoric settlement features MEM22578, MEM22539 and MEM22538. [2]