Brendon Hills NMP

This project carried out as part of the National Mapping Programme was undertaken out in response to a request by staff in our Exeter Field Office who were undertaking an extensive programme of field survey across Exmoor. The area has been subjected to intense agricultural improvement over the last century and few archaeological sites remain upstanding. The aim of the aerial survey was to provide 1:10,000 scale plans of all archaeological sites visible on aerial photographs to enable the field team to target specific areas for more detailed field surveying.

The area covered by the survey lies mainly within West Somerset, with a small area to the south-east lying over the border into Mid Devon. The Brendon Hills form an elongated ridge of hills located to the east of the main part of Exmoor. The terrain is broken by a series of deeply incised streams and rivers running roughly southwards to meet the Haddeo River, a tributary of the River Exe. The region is bounded to the west by the River Exe and the Exmoor National Park boundary to the east.

The Brendon Hills exhibit a generally low monument density and prior to the survey. As a result of the aerial survey a further 387 monument records were added to the NMR and 399 new records added to the Somerset SMR equating to roughly two new sites per square kilometre. The majority of new sites were Post Medieval agricultural features.

In this part of Exmoor, catch meadow irrigation systems are common on the sides of stream and river valleys. These are systems of parallel linear field gutters aligned with the contours (akin to leats). Each system of gutters was fed by a pond in which a mixture of water and slurry was collected. This mixture was then allowed to seep down-slope out of the gutters, very effectively fertilising the pasture. At the request of the Exeter Field Office, all gutters not already recorded of the current OS base map were mapped. In total 188 of these water meadows were recorded.

Lying at the heart of the Brendon Hills is an area of iron mining with extensive remains of industrial features associated with past mineral extraction and associated industrial activity. These features accounted for just under 20 percent of sites recorded, but were mostly concentrated into one individual quarter sheet.

One site initially thought to be the remains of a former garden earthwork were subsequently identified by the field survey as a potential Roman signal station, much of the site still visible as earthworks partially obscured by the buildings of a Post Medieval farm.

An internal report with further details on the findings of the project was produced and as with all the work of the Aerial Survey section this is available to everyone through English Heritage's public archive, the National Monuments Record, where you can obtain copies of any of our photographs, reports or publications.

The images used on this page are copyright English Heritage unless specified otherwise. For further details of any photographs or other images and for copies of these, or the plans and reports related to the project please contact the NMR English Heritage's public archive.

For further information on a project or any other aspect of the work of the Aerial Survey team please contact us at: AerialSurvey@english-heritage.org.uk.