Drove Cottage Henge (sometimes called Hunter's Lodge Henge)
is a
scheduled monument
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change.
The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...
in the
Priddy
Priddy is a village in Somerset, England in the Mendip Hills, close to East Harptree and north-west of Wells. It is in the local government district of Mendip.
The village lies in a small hollow near the summit of the Mendip range of hills, ...
parish of
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
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, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
, England. It is located north of Drove Cottage.
The site is a ceremonial
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
location.
Since this
henge
There are three related types of Neolithic earthwork that are all sometimes loosely called henges. The essential characteristic of all three is that they feature a ring-shaped bank and ditch, with the ditch inside the bank. Because the internal ...
is one of only around 80 henges throughout England, it is considered to be nationally important.
Description
Drove Cottage Henge is situated in a valley. The bank circumscribing the henge is about thick and high, with a diameter of around when measuring from the outsides of the banks. Just inside this bank is a ditch wide and deep, enclosing a circular central area about in diameter. In the northern portion of this central area is a low-lying mound
in front of the exit, which appears as a break in the outside bank.
noted in 2005 that "Examples of southerly and north-north-westerly orientations, ''apropos'' Stockwood and Hunter's Lodge, are documented at other Class I henge sites, but are not common". Harding and Lee in 1987 said of it "HUNTERS LODGE, Priddy ST 559 498: Sub-oval enclosure, surviving as an earthwork, situated at the head of a shallow valley."
[A. F. Harding, G. E. Lee, ''Henge monuments and related sites of Great Britain: air photographic evidence and catalogue'' (1987)]
This whole site has become hard to see because repeated
ploughing
A plough or plow (Differences between American and British spellings, US; both ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses, but in modern farms are draw ...
has heavily damaged the archaeological site, including the turf cover.
Nearby archaeological sites
Four barrows are relatively close to Drove Cottage Henge.
One is a disc barrow and a scheduled monument (designation #13840).
Another is a bowl barrow and a scheduled monument (designation #13871).
Another, also a bowl barrow, is a scheduled monument (designation #13872).
The final barrow is probably a bowl barrow, but it may be a spoil dump. It too is a scheduled monument (designation #13873).
See also
*
Neolithic Europe
The European Neolithic is the period when Neolithic (New Stone Age) technology was present in Europe, roughly between 7000 BCE (the approximate time of the first farming societies in Greece) and c.2000–1700 BCE (the beginning of the Bronze Age ...
References
External links
A view of the site
{{Somerset
Scheduled monuments in Mendip District
Henges
Mendip Hills