This is for those members that have been following the debate about the 
function of the long reaves on Dartmoor. I would welcome any questions.

      I agree with the first and second paragraph, but we do not know where 
the prehistoric streamworking may have ended and the Later streamworking 
began. I know that later work interrupted earlier field systems and 
settlements. This is obvious, and does not in any way help the boundary 
interpretation or hinder the trackway interpretation.
      The point has been missed regarding the termination of reaves before 
they reach the edge of the tinworkings. I can show several cases where the 
reave ends several yards short of the tin works, and there is no suggestion 
that the tinworks cut into the reave. This is not a case of the tinworks 
interrupting the reave, but the reave leading to the tinworks. The Merrivale 
example is a case in point. The reave terminates well back from the tinworks, 
then two hollow ways lead down into the tinworks one of them heads for the 
natural ford. There is no reason to suggest that the short Merrivale Reave is a 
continuation of either of the other elements of the so called "Great Western 
Reave" They are clearly separate entities and only joined by the imagination in 
order to justify  imaginary territories.
      There is no reason to suggest that the natural ford across Long Ash Brook 
postdates the abandonment of the streamworks because it traverses the 
bottom of it. There are inproved pathways on the other side that were 
probably created by the tin workers. A natural fording place will probably have 
been a natural fording place from time immemorial.
      There is no evidence that the reave has been effaced by later tinners,or 
ever continued as a boundary into the tinworks.
      I cannot find the 200 m gap in the Walkhampton common reave caused 
by tinworks. The tinworking ends a short distance below the reave. There is a 
small gap in the reave where the stream runs through . (DAoA map 46).
      The point concerning South Deepwork on the Eyelsbarrow is correct, but 
a well worn track allows access through this disturbance which meets with the 
reave in the other side. The tinworks does not interfere with through access. 
In fact hollow ways take the route down into the tinworks.
       This access explanation goes for all cases of interferance by later tin 
working. In no case to my knowledge does later working deny through access.
       I suggest that many of the hard tracks may well have coexisted with the 
reaves and that both may have continued to be used into histiorical times. 
This makes the problem of chronology irrelevant. Many of the hard tracks may 
well have been in use before the reaves were put in place for whatever 
purpose.
      A reave terminates a few yards above Wheal Franco. I cannot see how 
this this reave could ever have served as a boundary.
       I agree that reaves associated with prehistoric field systems may not 
have been for the removal of tin. However they seem to have been created 
for access rather than division. The fact that they do divide may be 
secondary. Many modern roads divide but division is not there intended 
function.These reaves are commonly open ended at the lower end which 
suggests that the field owners needed to bring nutrients up from the woodland 
to improve the nitrogen poor thin soils . Similar systems are still being used in 
the Med and Middle East. The causeways between the fields allow access to 
the fields. Perhaps this is also the reason for the narrowness of the fields. It is 
easier to spread compost over a narrow field than a wide one. These coaxial 
field systems can be be found all over Cyprus and throughout the Fertile 
Crescent.
       The intersecting causeways were pehaps intended for pack animals to 
access the system. How else can the open ends be explained. The terraced 
gardens of the Med needed similar access for similar reasons.
        In the last paragraph some the points cannot be proven. I do not 
expect to have found all the answers, but at least I can give a long list of 
situations that suggest a trackway function. 
        I have yet to recieve any evidence that the reaves were boundaries.
Roger B. Hutchins.