Medieval Houndtor: marginal settlement, contested landscape
Keywords:
medieval, Houndtor, Dartmoor, Devon, England, deserted medieval villages, moorlandAbstract
This article contributes to discussions around the nature and development of upland regions in medieval England by focusing on the settlement and abandonment of one small, yet renowned, medieval village on the fringes of Dartmoor: Houndtor, which is located on Houndtor Down in the parish of Manaton. Although Houndtor has been studied for sixty years, its development continues to be examined and disputed. This localised focus on a single settlement permits consideration of contextual factors affecting the settlement and abandonment of the margins of Dartmoor at a detailed yet manageable level. This paper’s combination of new documentary analysis with archaeological evidence confirms that the hamlet on Houndtor Down was first occupied in the early thirteenth century – a formative period in the shaping of the landscape in this part of Dartmoor – then abandoned in the late fourteenth or early fifteenth centuries.
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