Vermin trap at Legis Tor

Historic England's scheduling record (list entry 1008716) describes a vermin trap near the summit of Legis Tor, overlooking the valley of the River Plym. It is two V-shaped lengths of walling that together make an X-shaped trap, with the narrow funnel at the centre. The trapping area has two flat-sided slabs laid parallel, 12.7 centimetres apart, under a large flat stone with three small holes cut in it. R. H. Worth thought the holes were part of the tripping gear that let down the shutters and sprang the trap. The grooves in which the shutters sat survive as notches in the long side stones where the cover stone ends. It lies in the parish of Sheepstor, about 1.2 km north-west of Little Trowlesworthy Tor and 2.4 km south-east of Sheepstor.

The walls forming the funnel are of unequal length: the north-west wall is 6.1 metres long, the north-east wall 8.2 metres and the south-east wall only 3.66 metres, the last two attached to a rock outcrop. The final wall is 6.4 metres long, and every wall is 0.75 metres wide and 0.3 metres high. Predators in search of prey tend to follow routes that give them cover, and the purpose of a trap was to funnel them along ditches or walls to a central point where they could be caught.

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 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.

Sources: Historic England list entry 1008716, which cites Worth's Dartmoor (1981 edition), pages 157 to 162, Linehan, 'Deserted Sites and Rabbit Warrens on Dartmoor' (Medieval Archaeology 10, 1966), page 141, the Devon County Sites and Monuments Register (SX56NE94) and fieldwork for the Monuments Protection Programme by S. Gerrard.

• Period: Medieval
• Status: Scheduled monument (Historic England list entry 1008716)
• Grid reference: SX 5708 6555 (approximate, from the listing's coordinates)

Historic England listed designation: Vermin trap immediately south west of Legis Tor forming part of Legistor Warren