Thread by @Monk_Po, Good to see #LiDAR getting more use / coverage ... "Lost Bronze [...]

Good to see #LiDAR getting more use / coverage ... "Lost Bronze Age hill forts discovered in Devon" https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/lost-bronze-age-hill-forts-4091969. That's Windmill Clump https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MDV123583&resourceID=104 - the question for me tho' - is what's been happening in the adjacent fields to mark them quite so evenly?

So, lets turn this into a thread and see what we can find to help the local paper out. I'll start by deconstructing the article to give some local context. 1/n

1. The article mentions two sites, but only describes / shows one of them. I suspect I know which the second site is, but we'll come back to that in the coming days. (The DTM data does show them to be of very similar appearance, whatever *they* might turn out to be). 2/n

2. The article also mentions the Noss Iron Age Hill Fort near Dartmouth. This is the [~prehistoric & unexcavated] Greenway Camp #Hillfort & associated #earthwork. (I posted it way back in my history, but here is it again for reference - its not shown in the article). 3/n

3. There is mention of #BronzeAge burial mounds in the area, & there are a small number of known barrows in the area. 4/n

4. Both the site shown in the article, and what is likely the second site, are pretty much next door to the [already listed] #enclosure site above Berry Pomeroy, & that @jost_hobic helped me out with, re-looking at the data & the extent of the site: https://twitter.com/Monk_Po/status/1106883274864054272?s=20 5/n

https://twitter.com/Monk_Po/status/1106883274864054272?s=20

5. So, lets dig in & see what we can find out about the sites - starting with the site pictured in the article. To set us off on this journey, here are some photos of the site from last night - I'm N, shooting S - so this is the 'Beechdown' side of the hill (above the A385). 6/n

6. A closer look brings out the circular perimeter which was so clearly visible in the #Lidar data (and brings out that kinda lumpiness in the fields). 7/n

7. As linked above ^, the site is known, and listed in the HER - It's listed as 'Windmill Hill Clump', and that the 'name is suggestive of a windmill'. There is a second listing inside the circular perimeter of a windmill. The HER suggests the OS map of 1809 as the source. 8/n

8. Perhaps unsurprisingly - it retains that name on the subsequent OS maps. Interestingly tho' on the 1841 tithe map, the circular site is listed as 'Plantation', and the field in which it sits is listed as 'Windmill Down'. 9/n

9. Slight tangent #1 - The tithe maps show several #fields that have been removed since those surveys, but the field that contains that circular site has been split - it's one field on the first edition OS 25 map, and two on the second edition OS 25 map, so sometime ~1900. 10/n

10. Slight tangent #2 - The HER lists 11 windmill sites locally, although acknowledges the potential for duplicates in that list - there are five extant windmills locally. 11/n

11. Which are: (going with the sun from the TL)
Little Rey - #Brixham
Warborough Windmill - #Galmpton
Fernacombe Windmill - #Paignton
Yaddon Down - #Torquay
Long Barrow - North Whilborough
One of the 11 sites, Flete Mill, was a watermill - now lost under #Torquay town centre
12/n

12. Ok, back on track - the HER listing notes a degree of looseness over the name - citing an 1803 map as listing the hill as possibly being called 'Willman', rather than Windmill, although in the later 1809 map, it's Windmill Hill - So what's up there? ... 13/n

13. You'd need to discuss access - it's on farmland, so working with just data for now. There's a *very* circular shape visible in the data with a circumference of just under ~200mtrs. The surrounding ground is pretty lumpy, but nothing that really suggests any #earthworks 14/n

14. Slight Tangent #3. Stating the obvious now, but #Groundtruthing it would be really useful at this point to see what's actually there, you'd be able to get a feel for the age of the hedge in the divided field, & see what the modern groundworking is too (land drains?) 15/n

15. The reworked #LiDAR image is via the Relief Visualization Toolbox. There is a wider, concentric'ish shape around the site, but it significantly follows a very regular pattern, so my instinct is that's entirely modern work, & not part of any early, larger #enclosure. 16/n

16. The precise circular shape is the significant part of this, & I wonder if we are actually looking at a post-medieval folly here? Folly in this context being that extant copse of trees (or their descendants). Folly is not without precedent for just such a clump of trees. 17/n

17. Granted some older sites are pretty precisely circular too of course - Ringlestown, Mountfortescue and Tara - (all in Co Meath) - are good examples, and not too removed in terms of the size either - but they are hardly local. 18/n

18. Slight Tangent #4. About 15km N as the crow files is another circle in the landscape needing a second look. (There's no deeper connection at all suggested here, other than the pretty trivial fact it's a very circular *something* in the data)

19/n https://twitter.com/Monk_Po/status/1177679746492239877?s=20

https://twitter.com/Monk_Po/status/1177679746492239877?s=20

19. Background #reading for today, looking to get a sense of these sites in a wider context - be they the last strands of remnant #wildwood, localised ~17thC #landscape enhancement planting, or here, actually a windmill. (Sites plural, as the second one will be along soon

) 20/n

19. Background #reading for today, looking to get a sense of these sites in a wider context - be they the last strands of remnant #wildwood, localised ~17thC #landscape enhancement planting, or here, actually a windmill. (Sites plural, as the second one will be along soon) 20/n

20. ... and here it is - The second site, which is mentioned in passing, but not pictured / identified is *almost certainly* Rypen Clump, a few 100mtrs SE of #BerryPomeroy, and about 2km NW of Windmill Hill Clump. 21/n

21. So, Rypen is of very similar size and appearance to the Windmill Hill site, both in the #landscape & in the #LiDAR. There's no HER entry, & yeah absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence, but here I think it probably is, and that 'clump' tells you all you need. 22/n

22. Slight Tangent #5. Some ~900mtrs NE of Rypen, and on the hill above, is another local landmark clump of trees - Blackpool Clump. It's about half as big again, & of an irregular shape, but has an intriguingly circular edge (NW) ~about the same size as Rypen. 23/n

23. Slight Tangent #6. Bare with me here - but if you draw / complete that circular boundary, you'd end up with another [circular] clump of a similar size, right on the top of that little bit of hill - giving it the same relationship to the landscape as the others have.

24/n

23. Slight Tangent #6. Bare with me here - but if you draw / complete that circular boundary, you'd end up with another [circular] clump of a similar size, right on the top of that little bit of hill - giving it the same relationship to the landscape as the others have. 24/n

24. I don't actually think this is the '2nd' site mentioned in the article tho' - Given the similarity with Windmill Hill Clump, Rypen is the obvious choice. Locally (ish), there is one other site we'll quickly visit for completeness tho'. Fire Beacon Hill, above #Dittisham. 25/n

25. Slight Tangent #7. This site is ~8km downriver as the crow flies. The (16thC) beacon itself is the lower of the mounds on the lane, below the top of the hill. A hill which has a small, circular clump on it. It's the far clump in the photo (again, of Windmill Hill Clump). 26/n

26. Slight Tangent #8. Almost all of those pits and scrapes in the landscape renders are small, localised limestone extractive / surface pits - some of which had kilns on site - one extant example is the site just to the west of Rypen. 27/n

27. This is the 1841 tithe map - noting that the whole hill is named Rypen. The clump being descriptive of both the feature, & used as the field name. How to interpret the name is an open question tho', as both 'Ripen' and 'pen' would make sense in an agricultural context. 28/n

28. Probably a good time to put these sites on a map to show how close they are to each other. Some element of common landownership perhaps (or maybe rivalry?). 29/n

29. Adding to that #map - these photos were all taken in the same location - near the bottom end of Glazegate lane.
Rypen > N > Blackpool >E > Windmill Hill. 30/n

30. There is strong familial connections between Berry Pomeroy, and an estate called Sandridge, just to the south of Stoke Gabriel. I've been unable to find any land-transaction records / holdings pre-tithe tho'- by which time, these clumps are already established. 31/n

31. The tithe apportionment for Blackpool shows it containing / straddling a field boundary, that, & it's loose shape, apparent absence of discrete boundary work & slightly lopsided position on the hill, suggest it's an 'everyday' farm copse & not 'planned' like the others. 32/n

32. So, where does this leave us:
• Two hilltop clumps, very similar in size, shape, position in the landscape & from the maturity of the trees, age.
• A familial connection in the broader landscape (although lacking any deeper detail).
• Uncorroborated site names. 33/n

33. On what we have so far, a definite conclusion is still an open question, but let's take a view on a couple of points:
• There's nothing to suggest a #hillfort.
• Other than the name & associated mentions of the name, I've found nothing to place a windmill on the site. 34/n

34. • There's no history of, nor extant big, formal 'parks' locally.
• There are some small country 'estates' tho' - w/what could be seen as a kinda 'little park' by the house - gentrified farmland not anything formal - specimen trees, a small orchard, that kinda thing. 35/n

35. The clumps are clearly deliberate, and intended to be seen, possibly from the same location too, which would including travel along much of True Street ( #Totnes > Paignton rd), & the 18thC turnpike sits nicely with the landscape architecture work of Brown/Repton et al. 36/n

36. Whilst these clumps are on an entirely different scale to the big formal parks (obviously

), it's tempting to imagine that a range of ideas / ideals from those parks would be picked up and find their way out into the countryside at large (including hilltop clumps). 37/n

37. I'll stick my neck out here, and reaffirm my thoughts from up this thread somewhere - These are mid'ish 18thC landscape plantings to make the place look pretty, & possibly to signal that the landowner is doing ok for himself, and that's it - nothing more, nothing less. 38/n

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