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Medieval Archaeology Volume 6, 1962 - Issue 1
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Original Articles

The Medieval Village at Garrow Tor, Bodmin Moor, Cornwall

Dorothy Dudley
&
E. Marie Minter
Pages 272-294 | Published online: 19 May 2016

  • We are much indebted to Mr. Peter Throssell, the owner of Garrow Tor, for his kind permission to excavate and for his continued interest; to Mr. Charles Woolf for his photography; to the volunteers and workmen who made the excavation possible; and to Mr. J. G. Hurst for his constant interest and help.
  • O. S. Cornwall 1 in., 186; 6 in., XXI NW.; 25 in., XXI 5; Nat. grid 146785.
  • The hill is in the granite formation.
  • A still lonelier medieval farm lies over the hill east of Garrow, hidden in the valley below Buttern and Codda hills.
  • John Maclean, Parochial & Family History of the Parish of Blisland (1868), 1, appendix ii, p. 94.
  • By the late Lt.-Col. F. C. Hirst: MS. at the Museum, Zennor, Cornwall.
  • This was a favourite area for the summer-pasturing of cattle.
  • Information from Mr. J. G. Hurst.
  • See Col. Mudge's map of Cornwall published in 1809.
  • The ground is much damaged and overgrown; the upper part of the field contains a number of late-bronze-age hut-circles.
  • For a full account of this type of house see C. A. Gresham, ‘Platform-houses in north-west Wales,’ Archaeol. Cambrensis, CIII (1954), and C. and A. Fox in ‘Forts and farms on Margam mountain,’ Antiquity., VIII (1934), 395 ff.
  • Rab is the upper surface of the decaying granite.
  • I. C. Peate, The Welsh House, (1944), p. 123; ‘The double-ended firedog,’ Antiquity, XVI (1942), 64–70.
  • A ‘platform’-house still in use at St. Gennys, Cornwall, has this construction.
  • See E. M. Jope and R. I. Threlfall, ‘Excavation of a medieval settlement at Beere, North Tawton, Devon,’ Med. Archaeol., II (1958), 121–2.
  • Purvan (Cornish dialect), rush-wick: A. K. Hamilton Jenkin, Cornwall and its People (1945), pp. 357–8; F. Seebohm, English Village Community (1883), p. 208; Tribal System in Wales (1904), p. 161.
  • Lazy-beds were found in association with the long-hut group at Maen-y-bardd, Caernarvonshire. I am grateful to Mr. Lawrence Butler for permission to use this information.
  • They are in smaller lengths when an old bank breaks the run.
  • Bends at the lower ends of fields seem to be occasioned by the necessity of counteracting the swing of the hill to the east.
  • W. Marshall, Rural Economy of the West of England (1796), II, 119, 142.
  • G. B. Worgan, A General Survey of the Agriculture of Cornwall (1808), p. 54; id., Old Cornwall, II, 4, 28, 46.
  • D. Dudley, recent excavation (unpublished).
  • Royal Air Force air-photographs 3G/TUD/UK/137. Part 1. 5075, 5076.
  • R. Carew, Survey of Cornwall (1602), p. 57.
  • I am most grateful for permission to study this document.
  • Henderson MS. 886, Royal Institution of Cornwall, Truro.
  • Mr. E. Lomborg found a series of parallel ditches beneath a barrow in Zealand which he regards as ridge and furrow: ‘En højgruppe fra Ballermosen, Jaegerspris. Gravfund, hustomt og højryggede agre fra aeldra bronzealder,’ Aarbøger for nordisk Oldkyndighed og historie, 1956, p. 144, figs. 2 & 9. In Holland Prof, van Giffen found a series of ridge and furrow (höchacker) associated with bronze-age barrows on the Noordse Veld near Zeijen, published in ‘Oudheidkundige aantekeningen over Drentse Vondsten XVI’ in Nieuwe Drentse Volksalmanak, LXVII (1949), 123, figs. 24–5.
  • Antiq. J., XXIX (1949), 147, fig. 3, pl. xiv.
  • A. Hagen ‘Studier i jernalderens gårdssamfunn,’ Oslo Univ. oldsak. Skr., IV (1953), 247, fig. 83, from Moland, Oterholt in Telemark, under barrows.
  • Kuml, 1959, p. 64, figs. 16–17.
  • E. Estyn Evans, Irish Folkways (1957), ch. xi.
  • Cornish Archaeol., 1 (1962), 69–80.
  • East Dizzard, O.S. 1 in. Cornwall, 174, Nat. grid 169989; Poldue, O.S. 1 in. Cornwall, 186, Nat. grid 119730.
  • Polstroda, O.S. 1 in. Cornwall, 186, Nat. grid 112729; Carwen, O.S. 1 in. Cornwall, 186, Nat. grid 111738. East Dizzard and Twinaways are mentioned in Domesday Book—probably the head-farmsteads of trefs.
  • J. T. Blight, ‘Notice of enclosures at Smallacombe, Cornwall,‘J. Roy. Inst. Cornwall, III (1868), 10.
  • A few of the sherds are at Launceston and Plymouth museums: cf. Med. Archaeol., II (1958), 136, fig. 32
  • S. Baring-Gould, ‘Ancient settlements at Trewortha marsh,’ J. Roy. Inst. Cornwall, XI (1892), 68 ff.; XI (1893), 290.
  • Op. cit. in note 15; see also air-photographs, ibid., pls. xii, xiii.
  • See pottery report, pp. 285 ff. below.
  • D. Dudley, ‘Recent archaeological work in Cornwall,’ Proc. West Cornwall Field Club, 1, no. 4 (1955–6), 147.
  • Another site of this kind occurs at Great Care Hill, Cardinham.
  • It is not unusual to find hut-circles levelled by being set back into the hillside, but none are very large.
  • O.S. 1 in. Cornwall, 186, Nat. grid 202727. This is a site where the fields run diagonally across the hill slopes.
  • B. H. St. J. O'Neil, ‘The Roman villa at Magor farm,’ J. Roy. Inst. Cornwall, XXIV (1933–4), supplement.
  • West Cornwall Field Club, excavation proceeding.
  • C. A. R. Radford, ‘Report on the excavations at Castle Dore,’ J. Roy. Inst. Cornwall, n.s.1 (1951), appendix.
  • R. L. S. Bruce-Mitford, Recent Archaeological Excavations in Britain (1956), p. 173.
  • A. C. Thomas, Med. Archaeol., III (1959), 315, fig. 105.
  • C. A. R. Radford, Tintagel Castle (Ministry of Works official guide-book, 1935), p. 7.
  • Cf. note 33.
  • J. G. Hurst, ‘The medieval peasant house,’ Report of Viking Congress at York, 1961, forthcoming.
  • I am grateful to Mr. J. G. Hurst of the Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments for his help with the pottery and for discussion of the dating.
  • Op. cit. in note 15, p. 126.
  • D. Dudley, ‘Recent work in Cornish archaeology,’ Proc. W. Cornwall Field Club, 1, no. 4 (1955–6), 147.
  • S. E. Rigold, ‘Totnes castle,’ Trans. Devon Assoc., LXXXVI (1954), fig. 3, no. A (IVA, 60).
  • H. St. George Gray, ‘Excavations at Burrow Mump, Somerset,’ Proc. Somerset Archaeol. Soc., LXXXV (1939). fig. vii, p. 7.
  • Unpublished.
  • Op. cit. in note 15, fig. 31, nos. 37, 37A.
  • Op. cit. in note 37 and op. cit. in note 15, p. 136, fig. 32. I am grateful to Mr. J. Barber for permission to examine sherds from Trewortha in the Plymouth Museum.
  • E. M. Jope, ‘Medieval notes,’ Oxoniensia, XIV (1949), 78; see also p. 147, note 78, above.
  • Op. cit. in note 15, p. 127.
  • Op. cit. in note 55, figs. 3, 4, 6.
  • Op. cit. in note 15, p. 128, fig. 30.
  • G. C. Dunning and A. Fox, ‘Twelfth-century pottery from Exeter,’ Antiq. J., XXXI (1951), 182, fig. 1, no. 14.
  • Cf. op. cit. in note 15, p. 129; E. M. Jope and R. I. Threlfall, ‘The twelfth-century castle at Ascot Doilly, Oxfordshire,’ Antiq. J., XXXIX (1959), fig. 11, nos. E 13, G 4.
  • E. M. Jope, ‘The Clarendon hotel, Oxford,’ Oxoniensia, XXIII (1958), fig. 18, no. Z 13.
  • Jope and Threlfall, op. cit. in note 65, fig. 9, nos. E 4, E 5; fig. 11, nos. E 13, G 4; fig. 14, no. E 21.
  • Op. cit. in note 15, fig. 31, nos. 35, 36.
  • Op. cit. in note 15, p. 127.
  • Cf. op. cit. in note 66, p. 52.
  • Op. cit. in note 55, fig. 3, no. A (IVa, 60).
  • Ibid., fig. 6, no. B (III, 65).
  • I am grateful to Miss I. F. Snowdon of Liskeard for this information.
  • Miss Snowdon's mother, at the age of 14 in 1890, saw a baker similar to the Garrow dish but of larger diameter in the kitchen of her home and its use was explained to her by her mother.
  • M. E. Seebohm, Evolution of the English Farm (2 ed., revised 1952), pp. 114, 169, 188.
  • I. C. Peate, The Welsh House (1944), p. 84.
  • Ibid., p. III.
  • Anna O. Shepard, Ceramics for the Archaeologist (Washington, 1957), pp. 188, 189, fig. 13 f.
  • Unpublished.
  • E. M. Jope, A late dark-ages site at Gunwalloe,’ Proc. W. Cornwall Field Club, 1, no. 4 (1955–6), p. 139, fig. 27, nos. 11, 12.
  • M. M. Rix and G. C. Dunning, ‘Excavation of a medieval garderobe in Snargate street, Dover,’ Archaeol. Cantiana, LXIX (1955), 150–152, fig. 8.
  • E. M. Jope, ‘Some recent finds of medieval pottery,’ Oxoniensia, VII (1942), fig. 20, nos. 6–8; id., op. cit. in note 60, p. 78, fig. 11, nos. 5–8.
  • E. M. Jope, ‘A late medieval pottery kiln at Potterspury, Northampton,’ Archaeol. News Letter II (March 1950), 156–7; and see also id., op. cit. in note 60, fig. 11, nos. 2–4.
  • Jope and Threlfall, op. cit. in note 65, p. 264, fig. 19, nos. 5–7.
  • A large deposit of similar pottery was recovered from a site in Mawgan in Meneage, near Helston, Cornwall, in 1959, and work on this and the Garrow material is in progress.
  • I am indebted to Canon J. H. Adams who has given me the pottery from this site.
  • C. A. Ralegh Radford, ‘Two local costrels in the Torquay Nat. Hist. Museum,’ Devon Archaeol. Exploration Soc., v, pt. i (1953), 29.
  • An example of a nineteenth-century Dorchester pill can be seen in the Fielden collection in the Torquay Nat. Hist. Museum.
  • Op. cit. in note 55, fig. 4, nos. 61, 62.
  • Op. cit. in note 15, fig. 33, no. 51.
  • Ibid., fig. 31, nos. 32, 33.
  • Op. cit. in note 66, p. 52.
  • Jope and Threlfall, op. cit in note 65, fig. 14, nos. E 22, E 23.

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