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Round cairn 435m south east of Sparretts Farm

A Scheduled Monument in St. Cleer, Cornwall

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Coordinates

Latitude: 50.5166 / 50°30'59"N

Longitude: -4.4838 / 4°29'1"W

OS Eastings: 224008.688387

OS Northings: 71478.99224

OS Grid: SX240714

Mapcode National: GBR NF.JS2T

Mapcode Global: FRA 17HP.P09

Entry Name: Round cairn 435m south east of Sparretts Farm

Scheduled Date: 15 April 1997

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1013213

English Heritage Legacy ID: 15075

County: Cornwall

Civil Parish: St. Cleer

Traditional County: Cornwall

Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Cornwall

Church of England Parish: St Cleer

Church of England Diocese: Truro

Details

The monument includes a small round cairn situated on the south west edge of
Craddock Moor on Bodmin Moor.
The cairn survives as a circular mound, 4.5m diameter and 1m high, of heaped
earth and small stones, up to 0.25m across. The mound is well formed and
undisturbed, although later earthwork features impinge directly on the margin
of the cairn. The earliest of these is a medieval field boundary indicated by
a slight heaped stone wall, 1m wide and 0.2m high, running west from the
western edge of the cairn and forming part of a more extensive field system.
Subsequently a medieval tin miners' water channel, called a leat, was dug
immediately east of the cairn; the leat survives as a slight ditch, 1.5m wide
and 0.2m deep, its low ridge of upcast deposited against its western edge
over-riding the eastern edge of the cairn's mound. Only those parts of the
medieval field boundary and the leat which occur within 2m of the cairn's
outer perimeter are included in the scheduling.
This cairn is one of several prehistoric monuments on this hillside, including
another funerary cairn, hut circles, enclosures and small heaps of cleared
stone.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Bodmin Moor, the largest of the Cornish granite uplands, has long been
recognised to have exceptional preservation of archaeological remains. The
Moor has been the subject of detailed archaeological survey and is one of the
best recorded upland landscapes in England. The extensive relict landscapes of
prehistoric, medieval and post-medieval date provide direct evidence for human
exploitation of the Moor from the earliest prehistoric period onwards. The
well-preserved and often visible relationship between settlement sites, field
systems, ceremonial and funerary monuments as well as later industrial remains
provides significant insights into successive changes in the pattern of land
use through time. Round cairns are funerary monuments covering single or
multiple burials and dating to the Bronze Age (c.2000-700 BC). They were
constructed as mounds of earth and stone rubble up to 40m in external diameter
but usually considerably smaller; a kerb of edge-set stones sometimes bounds
the edges of the mound. Burials were placed in small pits, or on occasion
within a box-like structure of stone slabs called a cist, let into the old
ground surface or dug into the body of the cairn. Round cairns can occur as
isolated monuments, in small groups or in larger cemeteries. Their
considerable variation in form and longevity as a monument type provides
important information on the diversity of beliefs, burial practices and social
organisation in the Bronze Age. They are particularly representative of their
period and a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered
worthy of preservation.

This round cairn on Craddock Moor has survived well, without excavation or
other internal disturbance. Its proximity to a variety of broadly
contemporary settlement and funerary monuments demonstrates well the nature of
burial practice and land use during the Bronze Age.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Sharpe, A, The Minions Area Archaeological Survey and Management (Volume 2), (1989)
Other
7/1991, Carter, A./RCHME, 1:2500 AP transcription for SX 2471,
consulted 6/1991, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1282,
consulted 6/1991, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1356,
consulted 6/1991, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 14113,
Information told to MPP fieldworker by Peter Herring, CAU, (1993)

Source: Historic England

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