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Antiquities

Cressen Hayes and Little Cressen Hayes

Devon

Cressen Hayes and Little Cressen Hayes are two Grade II* listed buildings that sit on the edge of Dartmoor's cultivated landscape. The name suggests their origin as enclosed fields or clearings won from the moor, a pattern repeated across the National Park's margins. These farmhouses likely date from the medieval or early post-medieval period, when such settlement and land use was gradually expanding into Dartmoor's fringes.

Today they stand as quiet witnesses to centuries of moorland habitation and farming practice. Their survival and listing reflect their architectural interest and their place in understanding how people have worked and lived on the Dartmoor landscape over generations. The site is best appreciated as part of a wider walk through the moorland fringe, where the boundaries between enclosed land and open moor remain visible and shaped by such long occupation.

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Photo: Hanton01 (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons

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