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Bellever Tor settlement and field system
Grid ref: SX 6466 7679
On walking routes: Bellever Trail, Postbridge Trail, The Lichway
Main image: Photo: Fernweh, Wikimedia Commons
Historic England's scheduling record (list entry 1018512) describes an agglomerated enclosure, an irregular field system with hut circles and a round cairn on a ridge between Bellever Tor and Lakehead Hill, above the valleys of the Cherry Brook and the East Dart River. The scheduling falls into five areas. It lies in the parish of Dartmoor Forest, about 1.3 km north-west of Laughter Tor and 2.3 km south of Postbridge.
The field system is a block of 17 fields covering at least 4 hectares, with rubble bank walls up to 2 metres wide and 0.7 metres high and nine hut circles among them. A tenth hut lies east of the fields. Two enclosures lie to the west. The northern is agglomerated, at least 340 metres north to south by 270 metres east to west, with one hut inside and two attached to its wall. The southern is probably oval, 500 metres by 300 metres, though its east side can no longer be seen. Further west is another agglomerated enclosure of at least ten irregular areas bounded by boulder and rubble walling, holding four huts, three of them butted by the walling. A small cairn, 3.7 metres across and up to 0.5 metres high, sits against its north-east side.
The huts are banks round circular or oval spaces of 14.5 to 50.2 square metres, averaging 27.6, with walls 0.25 to 0.9 metres high. Ten have visible doorways and seven are attached to lengths of walling. The surface of the forest road through the monument, modern drainage channels and fencing are excluded, though the ground under them is included.
Sources: Historic England list entry 1018512, which cites Butler, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities (1991), page 44, the Devon County Sites and Monuments Register (SX67NW229.3, 1994) and Sainsbury's 1:2500 plan of Bellever (1992). A visitor comment on the Historic England page by Paul Davis describes aerial photographs; I have not used it.
- Period: Bronze Age
- Status: Scheduled monument (Historic England list entry 1018512)
- Grid reference: SX 6466 7679 (approximate, from the listing's coordinates)
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Photograph by Glavind Strachan Photography“When the zun in the East wuz beginning to rise, Jan Pook, half awake, Valled to rubbing his eyes. " Who be I ? Where be I ? " Zed Jan in a maze : " Here's a drunken old zun- Of-a-gun on a shays. If I be Jan Pook, I may zay to my cost A pair of post osses I've sartinly lost. If I baint Jan Pook 'Tez ...”
Also on Our DartmoorCombeshead Tor — A granite tor with a distinctive shape, located near Down Tor and offering views across Burrator Reservoir.
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