Almsworthy Common
Almsworthy Common is a small area of unenclosed land in Exmoor, south-western England. It contains a number of archaeological sites.
It is about 2 miles north of Exford roughly 0.5 km2 in area, and the Macmillan Way West passes through it, as does the parish boundary between Exford and Porlock. It reaches a height of 453 metres.[1]
Stone settings are arrangements of upright stones either scattered randomly or in a roughly geometric pattern.[2] They are the most common form of stone monument found on Exmoor, with 57 conclusively recorded examples in this area.[2] A large number are known to have existed but have been destroyed.[2]
560 m south west of Chetsford Bridge is a stone alignment.[3][4] The archaeologist Aubrey Burl stated that an "eye of faith" was needed to identify "either a ring or a set of rows."[5] The Ordnance Survey list it as a "Stone Circle" on their map.[5] In his 1970 study of the archaeology of Exmoor, Leslie Grinsell thought that it was "probably" a stone circle.[6]
The common is also the site of one of the best preserved hut circles on Exmoor.[7]
References
Footnotes
- ↑ Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 map
- 1 2 3 Riley & Wilson-North 2001, p. 27.
- ↑ "Almsworthy Common: a stone alignment 560m south west of Chetsford Bridge". Historic England.
- ↑ "MSO6727 - Prehistoric stone setting on Almsworthy Common". Exmoor Historic Environment Record. Exmoor National Park. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
- 1 2 Burl 2005, p. 76.
- ↑ Grinsell 1970, p. 38.
- ↑ "MSO6736 - Almsworthy Common Hut Circle". Exmoor Historic Environment Record. Exmoor National Park. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
Bibliography
- Burl, Aubrey (2000). The Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-08347-7.
- Burl, Aubrey (2003). From Carnac to Callanish: The Prehistoric Stone Rows and Avenues of Britain, Ireland and Brittany. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
- ——— (2005). A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11406-5.
- Gillings, Mark (2015a). "Excavation and Survey at Porlock Stone Circle and Row, Exmoor". Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society. 158: 1–28.
- ——— (2015b). "Betylmania? Small Standing Stones and the Megaliths of South-West Britain". Oxford Journal of Archaeology. 34 (3): 207–233. doi:10.1111/ojoa.12056.
- Grinsell, Leslie V. (1970). The Archaeology of Exmoor: Bideford Bay to Bridgwater. Newton Abbot: David and Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-4953-3.
- Fowler, Martin J. F. (1988). "The Standing Stones of Exmoor: A Provisional Catalogue of 62 West Somerset Sites". Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society. 132: 1–13.
- Hutton, Ronald (2013). Pagan Britain. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-19771-6.
- Riley, Hazel; Wilson-North, Robert (2001). The Field Archaeology of Exmoor. Swindon: English Heritage. ISBN 1-873592-58-2.
External links
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