Cof Cymru: National Historic Assets of Wales · Wales
Corntown causewayed enclosure
Ewenny, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales
A scheduled monument in Ewenny, Vale of Glamorgan, recorded as Causewayed Enclosure (Prehistoric).
The record
- Designation
- Scheduled monument
- Site type
- Causewayed Enclosure
- Period
- Prehistoric
- Date of designation
- 10 November 2004
- Community
- Ewenny
- Unitary authority
- Vale of Glamorgan
- Country
- Wales
- Coordinates (centre of the scheduled area)
- 51.47634, -3.54783
- SAM number
- GM585
- Cadw record number
- 4147
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
5 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1636 map "Cornubia : Devonia, Somersetus, Dorcestria, Wiltonia, Glocestria ..." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
Historical maps covering this location
- 1636 · Cornubia : Devonia, Somersetus, Dorcestria, Wiltonia, Glocestria ... (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
- 1637 · The fourth table of England. Cornub. Devonia, Somerset etc. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
- 1865 · England and Wales. England No. 6. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
- 1897 · 262 Pontypridd (Hills) (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
- 1897 · 262 Pontypridd (Outline) (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
Cadw's description
Summary description and reason for designation
The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Ancient Monument.
The monument comprises the remains of a causewayed enclosure, dating to the Neolithic period (c. 4,400 - 2,300 BC). The enclosure is visible as a cropmark in a field under arable cultivation and comprises multiple rings of interrupted ditches. A large assemblage of Neolithic worked flint has been recovered from the area of the site.
Large earthwork enclosures, known as causewayed enclosures or 'causewayed camps', were built throughout the Neolithic in much of southern Britain. Many gaps and causeways break the banks and ditches of these enclosures, which gives rise to their name. They seem to have served many purposes - settlement, defence, ritual and excarnation (where bodies were 'defleshed' before burial by exposure to animals or birds). The ditches of such sites (long since filled in and ploughed over) often show up as cropmarks visible on aerial photographs. However, much archaeological information can remain, both within the ditches and in pits and postholes within the central area of the monument.
The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of prehistoric ceremonial practices. The monument is an important relic of a prehistoric ritual landscape and retains significant archaeological potential, with a strong probability of the presence of intact ritual deposits and environmental and structural evidence.
The area scheduled comprises the remains described and an area around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive.
Nearby in the register
- Corntown CourtDomesticunder 1 mi
- Corntown FarmhouseDomesticunder 1 mi
- Courtyard range at BrocastleAgriculture and Subsistenceunder 1 mi
- Llampha Court and attached barn rangeDomesticunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.