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Oval enclosure at Newbridge, below Leigh Tor
Grid ref: SX 7138 7131
On walking routes: Two Moors Way
Main image: Photo: track_the_earth, Wikimedia Commons
Historic England's scheduling record (list entry 1003295) describes an oval enclosure on low ground below Leigh Tor, close to the River Dart. It is an area 48 metres long by 40 metres wide, ringed by a rubble and earth bank up to 1 metre high. Beyond the bank is a ditch, up to 4 metres wide and 1 metre deep, that supplied the material and survives in places as a buried feature. There are opposing entrances on the north and south, though the northern one may not be original. It lies in the parish of Widecombe in the Moor, about 1.1 km east of Aish Tor and 1.2 km south-east of Poundsgate.
There is no trace of structures inside, only a few scattered boulders. Historic England says the outer ditch strongly suggests that the enclosure is no earlier than the Iron Age and may even have medieval origins.
Sources: Historic England list entry 1003295 (updated 29 October 2015), which cites Butler, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities (1991), pages 120 to 121, and PastScape 335303.
- Period: Medieval
- Status: Scheduled monument (Historic England list entry 1003295)
- Grid reference: SX 7138 7131 (approximate, from the listing's coordinates)
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Roundy Pound - Throwleigh. Photograph by Glavind Strachan Photography“But this was only an illusion; a small hillock, on rather higher ground, sometimes but a few yards distant, being the object to which the treacherous mist had given the appearance of a hill.”
Also on Our DartmoorSophie Pierce — For many years Sophie was a reporter for BBC South West, covering all manner of stories for the radio and TV. She left in 2020 and now writes full time.
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