Local volunteers have been learning new skills to enable them to help document the condition of a number of 4,000 year-old burial mounds In Torridge.
And next week (Wednesday February 26) there will be a Community Education Day at Burton Arts Gallery, Bideford where residents can learn more about the work which has been carried out.
Several new projects are now underway as part of a scheme to protect and celebrate Torridge’s remarkable archaeology.
The Torridge Monuments Management Scheme (MMS) is a partnership jointly funded and managed by Historic England and our Historic Environment Team.
It aims to improve the condition of around 30 scheduled monuments across the district, including some on the Heritage at Risk Register.
The scheme also works with local communities – schools, parish councils, archaeological societies, and landowners – to offer opportunities for people to get involved with the heritage in their area.
The Torridge MMS will run until 2026 and follows earlier schemes run jointly by us and the North Devon National Landscape, which have secured several at-risk monuments.
Last month investigations into the Bronze Age round barrow cemetery at Wrangworthy Cross began.
The work focused on a group of burial mounds dating to between 2,000 and 1,500 BCE.
The group of round barrows – turf and clay mounds covering single or multiple burials – would have dominated a high plateau near East Putford.
Archaeologists from Historic England and our Historic Environment Team worked with volunteers from the North Devon and Devon Archaeological Societies and the Archaeology Club of Eggesford to train them to examine the condition of the monuments using techniques including analytical earthwork survey and test pitting (small-scale archaeological excavations).
Volunteers also cleared scrub from one barrow mound, allowing it to be investigated for the first time in decades.
Initial survey results show a high degree of variation in size and shape amongst the barrow mounds.
A ground-based investigation has also confirmed a previously unrecorded barrow mound recently detected on lidar (aerial laser scan) data.
The findings will be used to inform the future management of the barrows and included in a new interpretation panel planned for the nearby nature reserve.
This work paves the way for more projects with ten planned for this year.
This will include further condition surveys at Merton Medieval Moated Site and Godborough Castle near Bideford, scrub clearance work and investigations at sites in Winkleigh, Leeworthy and Welsford Moor and a programme of work to address monuments at risk on Lundy Island.
Local schools will participate in some of the activities, and there will be open days throughout the year.
Dr Olaf Bayer, Senior Archaeological Investigator at Historic England, said:
“The volunteers did a fantastic job, capturing vital information about the Wrangworthy barrows for their future management. Training the volunteers to assess the condition of monuments means they now have the skills to survey other local sites, which will be a real benefit to the scheme.”
Cressida Whitton, Torridge MMS project manager at our Historic Environment Team, said:
“MMS is a fantastic scheme for bringing local landowners, communities and volunteers together, for the common purpose of protecting the special local heritage represented by archaeological scheduled monuments.
“MMS volunteer management days and our open days, information boards and small-scale additional surveys engage the local community so much that ongoing management and protection of the monuments becomes a legacy of the MMS scheme.”
Councillor Andrea Davis, our Cabinet Member for Climate Change, Environment and Transport said:
“I want to thank the volunteers for clearing the site and taking the time to learn the skills needed to evaluate the condition of these important historical sites and for putting these skills into practice. These skills will be vital in our work to preserve not only these sites but many others across Devon.”
Thor Beverley of the North Devon Archaeological Society said:
“I really enjoyed surveying the barrows at Wrangworthy. It was a fascinating experience which gave me a new appreciation of local archaeology.”
The Community Education Day about the Torridge MMS is on Wednesday 26 February 2025 at Burton Arts Gallery, Bideford.
The day will start at 10.30am with apresentation on Prehistoric Torridge, followed by a Q&A on the Monument Management Scheme.
At 1.30pm there will be an opportunity to attend a geophysical survey at Godborough Castle, a Scheduled Monument at Turner’s Wood Nature Reserve. The event will end at approximately 3.30pm.
If you are interested in attending the Community Education Day events, or in volunteering with the Torridge MMS scheme, please email Cressida.Whitton@devon.gov.uk