MSO7061 - 19th Century field boundary and undated mound southwest of Blue Gate (Monument)

Centred at SS 7576 3761 in an improved pasture field are the remains of a slight earthen bank, 0.2 metres high and 3 metres wide, running southeastwards from the modern field bank for some 19 metres. The bank is overlain at its southeast end by a slight rectangular mound, 11 metres by 6.5 metres and 0.4 metres high. Traces of a shallow ditch are visible around the mound. The purpose and date of these features is uncertain, but they coincide with the position of a former field boundary shown on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey mapping and may represent the remains of the field bank. Further southeast, a slight circular rise may be the denuded remains of a barrow (MSO7068). Surveyed at 1:2500 scale with the Blue Gate Mine complex. [1-3] SS 7578 3763, SS 7579 3737. Removed field boundary, visible as a low positive earthwork c. 4 metres in width flanked by depressions of c. 1.0 metres width. The former hedge bank runs close to the western side of MSO7068, the barrow in the northern part of the field, suggesting that the latter, like MSO6800, had been used as an aid to lay out the field boundary. [4] The field boundary is also visible on the 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey map. Both editions show that it meets a boundary that begins at SS 7557 3732 and runs to SS 7577 3737, before heading southeast to meet another still extant boundary at SS 7589 3732. [1, 5] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [6]