H.E.R. record

.kmz file

Overview map

Public access:

The public accessibility of this site is unknown but it should be visible from a public right of way. Please assume that the site is private property. [Information last updated on 17 December 2002]

Details:

One of the four Priddy circles, northernmost of the group of three. Indication of an entrance in the SW segment. Belongs to the secondary Neolithic and falls into the henge group of monuments. Banks average 1m high and the ditch 0.4m deep. {1}

Divided into four quadrants by dry stone walls. The field in the NE quarter is ploughed regularly and has been for many years. Bank 7m wide but only about 0.5m high and very spread. The SW quadrant is best preserved with the bank 7m wide and 1m high with a ditch on the outside at best 5m wide and 0.75m deep covered with gorse and thorn. The interior here has been ploughed at some time. Elsewhere the bank survives, but in the NW quarter is disfigured by a lead mine shaft and is cut by the tracks of farm vehicles. A large part of the SE quadrant and the central area is under standing water which is probably permanent. {2}

Many of the surface depressions in and around the Priddy Circles are natural sinkholes, not mine workings. The construction of this circle involved levelling several pre-existing sinkholes, but the ground remained liable to subsidence. Unsatisfactory ground conditions may have been one of the factors that led to the abandonment of the whole ceremonial site before the Circles were completed. {5}

Scheduling revised with new national number on 31.1.1997 (was Somerset 119. {6}

See PRN 90072 for inconclusive geophysical survey and discussion. {7}

The monument is basically stable under pasture but there are areas of scrub, nettle, bracken etc growth on the banks. {8}

See PRNs 24042, 24043 and 24046 for the other three Priddy circles. {9}

The second northernmost of the four Priddy Circles, centred at ST 5409 5302 was mapped and recorded as part of a survey of aerial photographs and Lidar in the Mendip AONB.

Priddy Circles are thought to be henge monuments dating to the Neolithic and were possibly used for a ceremonial or ritual purpose.

The fourth circle (PRN 24046) is detached from the other three which are located 330m to the southwest. This circle is located 40m northeast of the next circle in the group (PRN 24043)

The circle measures 188m in diameter. It is defined by sections of bank with an external ditch. There are gaps or entrances to the northwest measuring 17m, the northeast measuring 11m, the southeast measuring 30m, the south measuring 10m, the south west measuring 6m and the west measuring 7m. These gaps in the circle may have been part of the construction or may have been caused by disturbances to the earthworks. A quarry pit is visible on aerial photographs in the gap in the southeast (recorded as part of PRN 19155) and some of the other damage may have also been caused by quarrying.

The bank measures up to 16m in width and the ditch measures up to 11m in width.

One section of bank to the north of the circle, centred at ST 5420 5311, has an internal as well as an external ditch. This ditch may have been caused by quarrying disturbance.

Photographs from 1925 appear to show a Bronze Age disc barrow in the northwest quadrant of the circle centred at ST 5404 5304. The barrow consists of a sub-circular bank with an external ditch. The disc barrow measures 47m in diameter. The bank measures up to 4m in width and the ditch measures up to 4m in width. A single sub-circular burial mound is located in the centre of the barrow measuring 6m in diameter. This feature is cut through on its southern edge by a post medieval field boundary. The possible disc barrow can aso be seen faintly on lidar. {10}

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