Bronze Age Burnt Mounds and Early Medieval Timber Structures at Town Farm Quarry, Burlescombe, Devon

A multi-period site was exposed during topsoil stripping at Town Farm Quarry, Burlescombe, Devon, in 2005. Surviving remains included two Bronze Age burnt mounds with timber-lined troughs and pits, and a collection of well-preserved timber structures associated with a natural spring, constructed in the seventh century AD. A complete leather shoe of the same date was recovered from the fill of a hollowed tree trunk, probably used as a wellhead. A range of studies, including an extensive dendrochronological and radiocarbon dating programme, has illustrated the changing environment of the site and contributed to the interpretation of the assemblage. Early post-Roman sites remain particularly uncommon in Devon, with burnt mounds otherwise yet to be identified.