Deserted medieval settlement near White Hill

Historic England's scheduling record (list entry 1007665) describes a medieval longhouse, an outbuilding and a farmyard on the lower south-south-east slope of White Hill, overlooking the valley of the Willsworthy Brook. The longhouse is a rectangular, two-room building terraced into the hillside. The lower room is the larger, 15 metres long by 4.3 metres wide inside, with a drystone rubble wall 1.4 metres wide and up to 0.8 metres high. Entrances face each other in gaps midway along the long side. Just uphill of the cross-passage they form is a small pit, which suggests partial early excavation, robbing or later reuse. The upper room is a later addition, 4 metres square inside. A shallow drainage ditch 1.5 metres wide leads away downslope. It lies in the parish of Peter Tavy, about 1.3 km west of Ger Tor and 2.9 km south-east of Lydford.

The outbuilding stands 2.5 metres north-east of the longhouse: a single rectangular room terraced into the slope, 9.2 metres long by 3.8 metres wide inside, with a rubble wall up to 1.5 metres wide and 0.9 metres high. A short length of drystone wall joins the two buildings and forms the north-western edge of a small farmyard, 15 metres by 11.5 metres, bounded by a lyncheted bank 1.2 metres wide and up to 0.8 metres high.

The settlement lies within a field system of the same date, which survives as three separate boundaries. Post-medieval fields, military activity and mining have damaged them, and peat has buried other lengths, so too little remains to judge the field system and it is not included in the scheduling.

Sources: Historic England list entry 1007665, which cites fieldwork for the Monuments Protection Programme by S. Gerrard and the Devon County Sites and Monuments Register (SX58SW68).

• Period: Medieval
• Status: Scheduled monument (Historic England list entry 1007665)
• Grid reference: SX 5335 8310 (approximate, from the listing's coordinates)