Interested in your posting regarding pack animal routes, I am a new member
interested in a local site just off the Kingsbridge to South Brent coaching route.
There are a number of substantial "Devon Bank" boundaries, some being
parallel, apparently lanes, dividing a wet area, now woodland, which has been
shown by a local historian to have held a community of about 70 people in 22
dwellings; early 19th. century. There is one remaining wall reported to be a
chapel.
My agricultural background would lead me to question why such a sizeable
community would have existed in such a small unfriendly habitat for crop or
animal production. A possible explanation would be some small scale possibly
open-cast extraction, ore or even roadstone. The ready availablity of flowing
water could be a contributory factor and the existence of very large quartz
bearing boulders strewn about unrelated to the boundaries deters me from
accepting "smallholding" activities.
Any suggestions to guide my further investigation welcome.
B. Morton
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