Country skills and objects #10

[Dartmoor navigator]

What's this place for then...?

 

[fishfish]

cairn?

ww2 auxillary units base?

 

[Mesquite]

Neolithic chamber tomb?

That or it might be a flint mine

 

[robin wood]

well hard to tell from those two pics but two options could either be ice house (would be near large posh house and with a shallow pond nearby) or lime kiln.

 

[Dartmoor navigator]

OK

Righto, not prehistoric or WWII.

Ice house, I dont think we have any on Dartmoor although there was an ice works at Prewley (North Moor). Sorry, I should have said, this is on Dartmoor. Associated with a farm (now ruined), there are only a few of these left on the moor.

 

[British Red]

Lime kiln?

 

[Dartmoor navigator]

No, not a lime kiln. It is a store but for what. These are a distictive piece of history on Dartmoor - this one is a bu993r to find.

 

[British Red]

Underground afrtificial cave....

Cheese?

Beer / Cider?

 

[Dartmoor navigator]

Underground afrtificial cave....

Cheese?

Beer / Cider?

'slike Monty Python.... "rocks, churches, apples, small rocks........ A DUCK"


It's a potato cave. Or az us sez 'round yer... 'a tittie cave'.

It's a hole dug in the growan (soft porous rock originating from decaying granite), where the potatoes were stored over winter. The entrance to this potato cave is on the hillside above the ruins of Combshead farm.

 

[British Red]

Makes sense - a root cellar in all but name

Good one!

 

[boatman]

So Dartmoor hadn't progressed enough to use potato clamps?

 

[Dartmoor navigator]

Hmmm I dunno, is it not the same thing but utilising a hole in the ground / rock? I think the principle is that they are stored in a cool, dark, frost free environment - if you dont have this you would use a potato clamp.

 

[boatman]

Not anaerobic though.

 

[Dartmoor navigator]

Not anaerobic though.

Maybe the cave was sealed. The opening to the cave had been reduced by a stone wall / hedge, so I guess they may have sealed it up with a pile of earth??? Beyond that I have no idea.

 

[British Red]

Clamps aren't anaerobic either - they deliberately leave a chimney for ventilation

 

[Dartmoor navigator]

Being a bit of a sad git, I took a book on Dartmoor industrial archaeology to bed. It appears that the caves were just closed with a wooden door.