MSO6807 - Two Barrows: A group of four Bronze Age barrows on a ridge at Hangley Cleave (Monument)

(SS 7475 3620, SS 7486 3622) Two Barrows (NR) (SS 7471 3631) Tumuli (NR) (SS 7464 3621) Tumuli. [1] Exmoor No 16, SS 74713621, a bowl barrow 22 paces diameter and 2 feet high. Exmoor No 17, SS 74753620, a bowl barrow with Ordnance Survey trig pillar on top. Exmoor No 18, SS 74863622, a bowl barrow 18 paces diameter and 1 foot high, small hollow in centre. Exmoor 16, 17 and 18. Bowl barrows listed, details as noted by Grinsell, among Two Barrows group. Exmoor 16 visited by Grinsell 23 May 1961, Exmoor 17 and 18 visited April 1949. Named Twoburroughs in 1632. [2] Grinsell's 16 and 18 are both truncated bowl barrows. 17 is a bowl barrow with a hollow in the centre. An excavation trench runs across it from southwest to northeast. Published survey 1:2500 revised. [3] Scheduled as AM 170a. Prominent mound close to the road, marked as a viewing point, public access allowed. Footpath on the top, marked line of rushes round the base of the mound. 1.9 metres high and 16 metres diameter. Scheduled as AM 170b. Badly mutilated, uneven, height 0.75 metres and c.17 metres diameter. Nearest the road. Scheduled as AM 170c. 0.5 metres high and c.13 metres diameter, most easterly of the group. [4] SS 7478 3622. A group of three barrows is situated about 482 metres above Ordnance Datum, on the summit of the ridge between Hangley Cleave on the north and Fyldon Common on the south. The road from Kinsford Gate to Sandyway Cross crosses the southern part of the ridge and the Devon/Somerset County Boundary runs along the northern side of this minor road. The fairly level summit of the ridge is covered with rough grass and reeds; there are excellent views; southwards across to Dartmoor, westwards to Barnstaple Bay, north to the Chains ridge and eastwards to Dunkery Beacon. SS 74702 36210. Barrow A, nearest the road, is visible as a rather amorphous turf-covered earth and stone flat-topped mound about 21 metres northwest/southeast by 13 metres and 0.9 metres in maximum height. The southwest side has been truncated by the boundary wall, its ditch and the road, so the barrow is not complete. There are at least three quarry holes in the interior of the barrow which suggest robbing, possibly for the wall. There in no evidence of a surrounding ditch to the barrow. The barrow was used as a marker for the County Boundary and the Exmoor Forest [5]. SS 74743 36208. Barrow B, the most apparent of the group, is evident as a mutilated earthen mound varying in diameter from about 18 metres northwest/southeast to 19.8 metres northeast/southwest and 2.1 metres in maximum height. The barrow has a central 'excavation' hollow, 2 metres in diameter and 0.4 metres deep. Spoil from this hollow has been dumped around the summit creating an irregular false top, which obscures the original flat top, which must have been about 1.7 metres high. As well as the central hollow an excavation trench, 2 metres wide and 0.8 metres deep, has been cut into the barrow from the westsouthwest. A similar though less well defined linear hollow, 1.5 metres wide, 0.4 metres deep through the east side suggests a continuation for this excavation across the barrow. An apparent backfilled trench, 1 metre wide and 0.2 metres deep, in the northnortheast may be no more than a path over the barrow. The trenches do not appear to have sectioned the ditch, which is visible as a band of reeds about 2.5 metres wide around most of the perimeter. The barrow has been used as a viewpoint and there is some erosion caused by walkers up its south side. On the 1889 [6] and 1904 [7] Ordnance Survey maps a Triangulation Point is shown on the southeast summit of the barrow, although there is now no evidence of one as stated by Grinsell. SS 74856 36225. Barrow C, the most easterly, is visible as a low earthen grass and reed-covered flat-topped mound varying in diameter from 15.5 metres northeast/southwest up to 16.5 metres east/west and 0.5 metres in maximum height. The southern half of the barrow is mainly covered by dense reeds. A small hollow, about 2 metres in diameter and 0.4 metres deep, near the centre in the northwest suggests it has been dug and the spoil spread around giving a rather uneven surface. There is no trace of an accompanying ditch, however probing revealed softer peat around the periphery suggesting that there was one, which has now become completely silted. Barrows A and C are clearly disc type barrows, whilst B is distinctly of the flat-topped bowl type. On the 1889 [6] and 1904 [7] editions of the Ordnance Survey maps the name 'Two Barrows' appears between barrows B and C. This has, unfortunately, given the name to the whole group which is a misnomer as it actually contains four barrows; A, B & C, as above, on the Somerset side of the boundary, and a fourth barrow at SS 7463 3621 on the Devon side. [5] The three barrows on the Somerset side of the County boundary described above are clearly visible on aerial photographs as earthwork mounds. A Bronze Age barrow is visible on aerial photographs as an earthwork on the northeast edge of Fyldon Common, close to the Devon / Somerset border. Centred at approximately SS 7463 3621, the barrow measures approximately 20 metres in diameter. Three additional barrows lie nearby, the group known as Two Barrows and it is probable that this barrow was part of the same group. It was probably originally recorded separately as it happened to lie on the Devon side of the border, unlike the other three, which are in Somerset. [10-11] In private ownership. [12] The field is reverting to rough pasture. The barrow (Devon) can be seen from the road. No change has been observed. [16] North Molton No 12, SS 7474 3621, a bowl barrow 19 paces diameter and 1 1/2 feet high. Visited by Rainbird Clarke in 1939 and Grinsell in 1949. [17] North Molton 12 is a bowl barrow 19 metres in diameter and 0.6 metres high with an 0.3 metre deep mutilation near the centre. Published survey 1:2500 revised. [18] The Scheduled Monument Condition Assessment of 2009 gave the site a survival score of 8. The Devon barrow scored 8, Somerset A scored 7, Somerset B scored 3 and Somerset C scored 0. [19] The fourth barrow (North Molton 12), which lies in Devon, was previously recorded separately but is actually part of the same group. [20] The site was surveyed in March 2015 as part of the 2015 Exmoor Scheduled Monument Condition Assessment. It was given a survival score of 8. The Devon barrow scored 7, Somerset A scored 7, Somerset B scored 3 and Somerset C scored 0. [21] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [23,24] The site was visited in 2018 as part of Exmoor Mires Partnership activities. Minor poaching was visible on the site, with a track developing over Barrow A and adjacent to Barrow B. [25] The site is included in a 2023 Condition Survey [26]