What feature on Mel Tor is evidence of past stone cutting?
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Historic England's scheduling record (list entry 1008713) describes a pillow mound on the south-west-facing slope of Legis Tor, overlooking the valley of Legis Lake. A pillow mound is a flat-topped, oblong mound built for rabbits to live in. This one is 13 metres long, 4.7 metres wide and 1.1 metres high, of soil and stone, with a ditch 2.6 metres wide and 0.8 metres deep on all four sides, from which the material was dug. It lies in the parish of Sheepstor, about 1.2 km north-west of Little Trowlesworthy Tor and 2.3 km south-east of Sheepstor.
It is part of the rabbit warren at Legis Tor, sometimes called New Warren, which may have run jointly with Trowlesworthy Warren until it became an outlier of Ditsworthy Warren. The name New Warren strongly suggests there was an older warren on the site. The warren is hard to date because there are no early documents, though it is generally accepted that the warren across the Plym at Trowlesworthy existed by 1292. Fences and fence posts are not part of the scheduling.
Sources: Historic England list entry 1008713, which cites Linehan, 'Deserted Sites and Rabbit Warrens on Dartmoor' (Medieval Archaeology 10, 1966), page 141, the Devon County Sites and Monuments Register (SX56NE239) and fieldwork for the Monuments Protection Programme by S. Gerrard.
- Period: Medieval
- Status: Scheduled monument (Historic England list entry 1008713)
- Grid reference: SX 5690 6549 (approximate, from the listing's coordinates)
Historic England listed designation: Pillow mound 220m south west of Legis Tor forming part of Legistor Warren
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