Remains of Large Bank and Ditch, Kipscombe Farm, Countisbury, Watersmeet, Devon

Summary

Flattened remains of a broad bank and slight ditch visible in the pasture of improved moorland S of Kipscombe farm. The bank survives as a broad slightly raised area aligned NNE-SSW across the pasture from the old hollow way W of the farm to the access road to the lighthouse. The feature is also on the same alignment as a large section of bank and ditch surviving on the patch of open moorland between the access road and the A39. They are likely to be the same feature. The surviving bank is 3 – 4m wide plus a ditch on the E side up to 0.6m deep. In the pasture the bank is 4 – 5m wide and the ditch 0.3m deep.

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Description

Flattened remains of a broad bank and slight ditch visible in the pasture of improved moorland S of Kipscombe farm. The bank survives as a broad slightly raised area aligned NNE-SSW across the pasture from the old hollow way W of the farm to the access road to the lighthouse. The feature is also on the same alignment as a large section of bank and ditch surviving on the patch of open moorland between the access road and the A39. They are likely to be the same feature. The surviving bank is 3 – 4m wide plus a ditch on the E side up to 0.6m deep. In the pasture the bank is 4 – 5m wide and the ditch 0.3m deep.

The S surviving section of the bank was surveyed by D and C Thackray but no suggestion was made as to its age. A probable prehistoric barrow lies 1m W of the bank. Another bank may run E from the S end by the A39, in which case this is probably an attempt to enclose the moorland. However, the bank is not shown on any of the historic maps which suggests it is eighteenth century or earlier, and had gone out of use by the nineteenth century.

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