East Putford: Nature and Historic Sites

East Putford combines natural features with historic sites. From Common Moor to fishponds, burial mounds and individual buildings, a variety of forms and scales can be found side by side. For planning your trip, the themes can be clearly distinguished: a regionally restricted habitat, archaeological earthworks and historic buildings.

Nature and Fishponds

Common Moor in East Putford is one of the few remaining examples of a wet heathland type restricted to North Devon and Pembrokeshire. The site is also home to a diverse invertebrate fauna. The nature theme therefore brings together a narrowly restricted range with the species diversity found at this particular site. This provides a clearly defined focus for travellers interested in landscape and ecology.

Near Winslade are three well-preserved fishponds, which are comparatively rare in Devon. They survive as earthworks; each pond is rectangular and encloses a central island. The northernmost pond is 42 m long, 31.5 m wide and 0.6 m deep. These measurements apply only to the northernmost pond, while the rectangular shape and central island are features of all three. This distinguishes the features shared by the group from the measurement of a single pond.

Burial Mounds and Ridge

Northwest of Venn Cottages are three bowl barrows, which form part of a well-preserved and extensive round barrow cemetery. They are situated on a high ridge overlooking the valley of a tributary of the River Torridge. The three mounds are part of the larger cemetery and should not be confused with its full extent. Near Winslade, rectangular ponds and central islands are the main features; here, the grouping of the mounds and their elevated position overlooking the valley shape the example. The two archaeological sites therefore differ both in form and in their landscape context.

Buildings and Historical Context

Powler’s Piece Tollhouse is a small, single-storey tollhouse on the north side of a minor road, shortly before the junction at Powler’s Piece. Its roadside location and position shortly before the junction provide a precise reference point. As a single-storey building, the tollhouse is on a different scale from sites comprising several ponds or mounds.

Mambury is a 17th-century farmhouse. Raleigh was probably the original farmstead of East Putford. The references differ in type: Mambury is identified by a building type and a century, while Raleigh is described as probably having been the original farmstead. Thus, a specific date and a cautiously worded historical attribution sit side by side.

The fishponds and bowl barrows can also be readily compared: the precise measurements refer to the northernmost pond, while the three mounds are identified as part of a larger cemetery. This makes clear the difference between an individual measurement and the broader archaeological context.

Discover more destinations: Chagford, Uplyme, Colebrooke, Buckland Monachorum, Lifton, Bovey Tracey, Hartland, Newton Abbot

For the regional travel guide: Devon.