57 



AN ANCIENT SETTLEMENT ON TREWORTHA MARSH. 



By the Rev. S. BARING-GOULD. 



Trewortha marsh, occupies the bed of an ancient lake that 

 has been silted up by the granite rubble brought down by 

 several streams that flow into the basin. This rubble has 

 attracted the attention of tin miners from an early period, 

 certainly from prehistoric times, and those who searched for tin 

 have left their traces on the margin of the marsh. Indeed, the 

 banks that slope into Trewortha bottom are everywhere covered 

 with remains, that show that in a former age there must have 

 been a considerable population settled on this desolate and lone- 

 some spot. 



At Tresillan, where an inlet of the ancient lake formed an 

 arm, were ruins that have been recently destroyed, and these 

 were of houses of the date of Edward VI and Queen Mary, if 

 one may judge from the coins found there during the process of 

 demolition. An octagonal cheese-form or press was also there 

 discovered, cut in granite, that belongs to about the same date ; 

 this, as well as the coins, is now in the possession of Francis E. 

 Eodd, Esq., of Trebartha Hall. These houses had " cloam " 

 ovens, fire-places, and chimneys. 



Quite other is the settlement further up the valley, to the 

 south, at the head of the marsh. Here the whole moor-side is 

 cut up with lines of demarcation forming paddocks and fields, 

 running down to the water's edge, and with the remains of 

 circular huts in most of these paddocks. 



Different again is a settlement that lies between Eushleford 

 Gate and this colony of hut- circle-dwellers. Here also the moor 

 slope is lined with upright stones that formed the bases of field 

 and paddock walls, but these are in connexion with a cluster of 

 dwellings that are oblong. 



Through the kindness of Mr, T. E. Bolitho, the owner of 

 the land, and of Mr. F. E. Eodd, who placed his workmen at 

 my disposal, I have been able, assisted by the Eev. A. H. Malan, 

 of Altarnon, to thoroughly explore two of these habitations, and 

 to partially excavate two or three more. 



