Coaxial field system, Kestor

This is the Kestor part of the North Teign coaxial field system, and Historic England counts it among the most visually impressive on the moor. Coaxial means the fields share one main axis and are cut across by short transverse boundaries. The scheduled area, first listed on 10 December 1952 and amended on 4 February 1999, falls in two parts in Chagford and Gidleigh parishes, on the slopes around Kestor between the North and South Teign rivers.

Two settlements sit inside the fields. The larger is a scatter of at least 41 stone hut circles on the northern and eastern slopes below Kestor, with internal diameters from 3.5 to 10.4 metres (average 6.87 m). More than 20 have walls standing over a metre high, 21 have visible doorways, and one has a porch, one a partition and one a cupboard. The second settlement, south of Kestor, is four hut circles tied in with at least five small rectangular fields.

Lady Fox excavated four of the huts in 1951 and 1952. The large one inside Roundy Pound gave evidence of iron smelting, generally accepted as Iron Age, though the hut was also reoccupied in the medieval period. Rowe's Perambulation, quoting Ormerod, adds a square pound and two huts about a hundred yards south of Roundy Pound. A separate round house at Teigncombe (SX 66801 86557) was dug over six seasons from 1999 to 2005, mainly to find out what bracken roots do to buried deposits. It turned out to be a Middle Bronze Age house, re-used in the Early Iron Age and again in the Roman period, with radiocarbon dates from pottery residues running from about 1500 to 1230 cal BC. The platform it sits on was cut about 14 metres across.

Other features in the area: a tor cairn on the west side of Kestor (10 m by 7 m), a pillow mound, four structures that were probably shelters or animal pounds, and at least four large prospecting pits and a trench linked to the Teigncombe tinworks. Part of the Southill leat crosses the field system. It is 8 km long, has worked since at least the late 15th century, and is the earliest documented long leat on the moor.

The Historic England page has more than the official entry: its comments and photos tab carries a plan of a round house and pictures from the Teigncombe dig, posted by Sandy Gerrard. The full excavation report is a 58 page PDF on the ACE Archaeology Club site: Teigncombe excavation report.

• Period: Bronze Age to Iron Age, with medieval and later use
• Status: Scheduled monument (Historic England list entry 1016691)
• Grid reference: SX 66430 87033 and SX 66621 85994 (the two areas of protection)
• Parishes: Chagford and Gidleigh