Hamel Down strip fields

Historic England's scheduling record (list entry 1021394) describes a medieval field system, several tin openworks, at least five prehistoric settlements and a cairn on the lower west-facing slope of Hamel Down. The scheduling falls into three areas. The deserted medieval settlement at Challacombe lies just west and has its own scheduling. It lies across the parishes of Manaton and Widecombe in the Moor, about 1.1 km south-west of Hameldown Tor and 3.4 km north-west of Bonehill.

The fields are narrow rectangles bounded by substantial stone and earth banks, mostly parallel with the contours but across them towards the north and east edges, the steeper ones held by the biggest banks, the lynchets, built in the medieval period by the farmers at Challacombe, who each farmed fields throughout the area. Ridge and furrow shows many were ploughed, others only grazed. A stony platform at SX 69647918, 19.5 metres by 5.5 metres and up to 0.5 metres high, may be a barn or other building for the fields. At least three small openworks, opencast tin quarries, cut through the field system.

The prehistoric remains are five small settlements and a cairn. Each settlement has an enclosure, though only three show houses. The settlement at SX 69657988 was part excavated in 1938, when pottery and flints were found. The large enclosure at SX 69567931, cut in two by the Moretonhampstead to Widecombe road, has a substantial rubble bank up to 3.5 metres wide and 1.3 metres high. The cairn stands in the south-east corner of the monument, a mound 13.4 metres across and up to 1.3 metres high with two small hollows leading into its side, so it has probably been partly excavated.

Sources: Historic England list entry 1021394, which cites the Duchy Farms Survey of Challacombe at 1:10,000 (1990).

• Period: Medieval
• Status: Scheduled monument (Historic England list entry 1021394)
• Grid reference: SX 6979 7961 (approximate, from the listing's coordinates)