Devon, Its Moorlands, Streams and CoastsNorthcote, Rosalind
History
Devon, Its Moorlands, Streams and Coasts
Northcote, Rosalind
Devon (England)
The great numbers of prehistoric people who lived on the moor are very
remarkable. 'Tens of thousands of their habitations have been
destroyed,' says Mr Baring-Gould, 'yet tens of thousands remain. At Post
Bridge, within a radius of half a mile, are fifteen pounds. If we give
an average of twenty huts to a pound, and allow for habitations
scattered about, not enclosed in a pound, and give six persons to a hut,
we have at once a population, within a mile, of 2,000 persons.' Perhaps
they climbed so high because on the lower slopes the forest was thick,
and wild beasts were more to be feared, though, according to tradition,
they were certainly not free from danger on the moor; for 'wolves and
winged serpents were no strangers to the hills or valleys.' All their
possessions that we are aware of belong to the early Bronze Age, when
flint was used in great quantities, and bronze was known, but was rare
and very valuable. The amber pommel of a dagger, inlaid with gold pins,
and part of a bronze dagger blade, were found in a barrow on Hameldon,
and a few other bronze weapons have been discovered; flint implements in
abundance. Great numbers of flint scrapers for cleaning the skins of
animals, and small knives for cutting up meat, have been picked up;
arrow-heads are scarce, and it would seem that they left very few celts
or axes, and spear-heads.
Of the exceedingly interesting remains, perhaps the most interesting--at
any rate, to the uninitiated--is Grimspound. The boundary wall, which is
double, encloses four acres; it is from ten to twelve feet thick, but
not above five and a half feet in height. Within the circle are
twenty-four hut-circles, and in some of them charcoal and fragments of
pottery have been found. A brook, dipping under the walls, and passing
through the enclosure, supplied the camp with water.
Drizzlecombe, near Sheep's Tor, is rich in a variety of antiquities, for
it has three stone rows, a large tumulus, a kistvaen, and a later
relic--a miner's blowing-house. One of the avenues is two hundred and
sixty feet long, and one is double for a part of the way, and each of
the three starts from a menhir, or long stone. Near Merivale Bridge are
two double stone rows, but the stones are small. Close by are a sacred
circle, a kistvaen, a pound and hut-circles, and one cairn, besides the
ruins of others that have been destroyed. It would be absurd to pretend
to enter on such a wide subject here. Some idea of its extent may be
gathered by considering one single branch of it: Mr Baring-Gould has
stated that no fewer than fifty stone avenues have been observed in
different parts of the moor. And hut-circles and ancient track-lines are
unnumbered, although very many antiquities of all kinds have been
destroyed when granite was wanted for rebuilding churches, or for making
doorways or gate-posts, or even for mending roads.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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