MMO336 - Lower Hollacombe, Kentisbury (Monument)

Building remains, trackways and small enclosures all associated with the deserted farm site of Lower Hollacombe. It shows well on aerial photographs from 1947 and 1978. [1-3] The Tithe Map shows a complex of two buildings at the National Grid Reference cited, one of which was inhabited at that date. A garden, an orchard and a road are also mentioned in the Apportionment. The complex was approached by a hedged road from the north-north-west and by a track from the southwest. [4] On the 6 inch 1st Edition Ordnance Survey of 1890, the complex is named Lower Hollacombe. [5] At the National Grid Reference cited, on a steep east facing slope are earthworks which relate to the former building complex, its associated yard and paddocks and roads. The earthworks from a linear group 120 metres long and averaging 30 metres in width. At least four building platforms are visible. On one, at SS 6464 4413, are the fragmentary remains of stone footings, which correspond with the position of the structure shown on the Tithe Map. The earthworks may represent a former feamstead and are more extensive than the complex depicted on the Tithe Map [4]. This might suggest that the complex was already little more than a cottage by the early 19th Century. Surveyed at 1:2500. [6,7] The earthwork remains of the deserted settlement of Lower Hollacombe are clearly visible on aerial photographs. Several house platforms are visible, with associated field boundaries and other banks. These boundaries form at least three irregularly shaped enclosures, probably paddocks or stock enclosures, lying within extant fields. The track and hedged road mentioned above are not visible on aerial photographs. The earthworks seem to indicate a larger settlement than that depicted on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey 1:2500 map, suggesting that the settlement was already reduced in size by the time of publication in 1889. [8-10] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [11]