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Trebarveth
St Keverne |
Kerrier
NGR: SW 7960 1931 |
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South of St Keverne and west of lowland Point is a remarkably
complex archaeological landscape with artefact scatters, settlements
and field systems ranging in date from the Mesolithic to the early
mediæval period. Approximately 700m to the west of Lowland Point, on
the very edge of a low crumbling cliff lie the remains of a small
oval stone-walled structure which houses the remains of a
salt-making operation dated by pottery to the early Romano-British
period. The walls of the building enclose a hollow area containing
the remains of two ovens with stone lined flues, one superimposed
above the other and representing two phases of activity. A large
amount of pottery has been recovered from the vicinity and is still
appearing as the cliff edge slowly erodes; sherds can often be found
on the beach below. A few of these sherds are from domestic vessels
but the vast majority of them are briquetage, fragments of coarse
earthenware vessels made from the local Gabbroic clay made into
plain rectangular slab-sided vessels. These were filled with sea
water and heated by the ovens and flues to evaporate the water and
recover the sea-salt. The pottery finds indicate that this activity
dates to the 2nd Century AD.
The ‘salt factory’ is part of an extensive multi-phase prehistoric
and mediæval landscape which extends over the coastal terrace, up
over the coastal slopes and across the plateau to St Keverne and
beyond. The coastal terrace is a ‘head’ deposit of fine sand blown
in at the height of the last glacial period and is of great
geological interest. The slopes behind it are part of an ancient
cliff line created when the sea level was much higher than it is at
present. This landscape was created and sculpted during the various
phases of the Pleistocene period, or Ice Age, over the last million
years
Inland from the salt factory, in the direction of the settlement of
Trebarveth are a number of prehistoric round houses or ‘hut circles’
within contemporary field systems. These sites have produced various
kinds of pottery and, in one case, a small iron blade or knife;
together this material indicates that the area was intensively
occupied in both the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. Other finds of
flints and stone tools indicate a possible Mesolithic occupation
which further extends the history of activity in this area.
The settlement of Trebarveth dates from the early mediæval period
and its name derives from the Cornish for “Middle Farm” - presumably
describing it’s relationships within the contemporary landscape. The
settlement would have been surrounded by extensive field systems,
the layout of which may have been determined as far back as the
Bronze Age.
Access to the coastal sites and the hut circles further inland can
be gained via the coastal path from Coverack.Sources
Peacock, DPS, 1969. A Romano-British Salt-working Site at
Trebarveth, St Keverne in Cornish Archaeology 8,
pp.47-65. |
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Ground & Aerial photographs |
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