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Rexy Barrow

Round Barrow(s)

Miscellaneous

Details of barrow on Pastscape

[SS 77024196] Tumulus (NR) SS 770419 Rexy Barrow, round barrow, Little Buscombe. Scheduled. This is a large undisturbed bowl barrow (Grinsell's Exmoor No. 5) See GP AO/65/128/6 1/2500 survey revised. (3)
Rexy Barrow (NR) (4) SS 77024195. Exmoor 5. Bowl barrow 20 paces diameter 3.5 ft high. Visited by Grinsell and Charles Whybrow 22 May 1961. It is marked as Rexy Barrow on the 1 in. OS Exmoor Tourist Map 1967, which may possibly be another form of Exaborough on a 17th century name.
Rexy Barrow is centred at SS 7702 4196. It lies on the spine of Great Buscombe ridge at 441m above OD, and has extensive visibility to the east, and also southwards towards Ashcombe. To the north-east it has an open aspect towards Lanacombe, whilst to the north views are obscured. Westwards the peat covered plateau known as "The Chains" is visible.
The barrow is well preserved, with a diameter of 18m and a summit diameter of 11.5m). It has steep, well defined sides 1.2m in height and a flat top. There is no evidence for any excavation or robbing, although the surface of the barrow is uneven, possibly due to the passage of animal and other traffic over and around it - there are certainly marked tracks leading to the barrow from the north-east and south-south-west.
It is covered in a mixture of moor grass and reeds, and a pronounced swathe of reeds around the mound may indicate the presence of a silted ditch, although there is now no earthwork evidence for it. (8-9)
The barrow described above is clearly visible on aerial photographs as a substantial mound surrounded by a crop mark ditch. It lies within an extensive area of 19th century drainage ditches constructed by the Knight family as part of their land improvement attempts, and it is not clear whether this activity has affected the monument (10).
Chance Posted by Chance
16th December 2014ce

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