Pillow mound in the Blacka Brook valley, Trowlesworthy Warren

Historic England's scheduling record (list entry 1014664) describes a pillow mound among earlier tin streamworking earthworks in the bottom of the Blacka Brook valley, part of Trowlesworthy Warren. The warren has around 64 pillow mounds and 40 vermin traps on the slopes of Little and Great Trowlesworthy Tors and is bounded by the River Plym, Spanish Lake and Blacka Brook. It is generally accepted as the oldest surviving warren on the moor: before 1292 Samson de Traylesworthie was granted land for rabbit farming by Baldwin de Redvers, Earl of Devon, and in 1551 it was leased to William Woollcombe. It stayed in use into the first half of the 20th century. It lies in the parish of Shaugh Prior, about 1 km south-west of Little Trowlesworthy Tor and 2.1 km north of Lee Moor.

The mound is a flat-topped oblong of soil and stone 29.7 metres long, 7.5 metres wide and 1.1 metres high, with a ditch 2 metres wide and 0.4 metres deep round it from which it was dug, and its ends are roughly held with drystone walling. It lies over alluvial tin streamworking, so it is more recent than the last tin working in this part of Blacka Brook. The monument is in the care of the Secretary of State.

Sources: Historic England list entry 1014664, which cites Butler, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities (1994), Crossing's Guide to Dartmoor (1990 edition), page 431, the Devon County Sites and Monuments Register (SX56NE240, 1985), the National Archaeological Record (SX56SE66) and fieldwork for the Monuments Protection Programme by S. Gerrard (1994).

• Period: Medieval
• Status: Scheduled monument (Historic England list entry 1014664)
• Grid reference: SX 5692 6394 (approximate, from the listing's coordinates)