Reasons for Designation
Rounds are small embanked enclosures, one of a range of settlement types dating to between the later Iron Age and the early post-Roman period. Usually circular or oval, they have a single earth and rubble bank and an outer ditch, with one entrance breaking the circuit. Excavations have produced drystone supporting walls within the bank, paved or cobbled entrance ways, post built gate structures, and remains of timber, turf or stone built houses of oval or rectangular plan, often set around the inner edge of the enclosing bank. Other evidence includes hearths, drains, gullies, pits and rubbish middens. Evidence for industrial activities has been recovered from some sites, including small scale metal working and, among the domestic debris, items traded from distant sources. Some rounds are associated with secondary enclosures, either abutting the round as an annexe or forming an additional enclosure. Rounds are viewed primarily as agricultural settlements, the equivalents of farming hamlets. They were replaced by unenclosed settlement types by the 7th century AD. Over 750 rounds are recorded in the British Isles, occurring in areas bordering the Irish Seas, but confined in England to south west Devon and especially Cornwall, where many more examples may await discovery. Most recorded examples are sited on hillslopes and spurs. Rounds are important as one of the major sources of information on settlement and social organisation of the Iron Age and Roman periods in south west England.
Manor houses are associated with the medieval social order of the feudal system and represent the emergence of the landowning elite who controlled the peasantry. In the case of the round with medieval re-use as a manor house at Crane Godrevy, 650m south east of Godrevy Farm there is a fascinating juxtaposition of similar types of land use with important socially elite sites of differing dates but with similar agricultural affiliations actually superimposed on one another. The abandonment, brought about by the engulfing of the estate with sand, has served to preserve these important social, territorial, political and agricultural dwellings along with their landscape context thus enabling a significant picture of change through time to be observed.
Details
The monument includes a round with medieval re-use as a manor house, known from excavation reports as Crane Godrevy, and situated on Gwithian Towans. The round survives as entirely buried features, deposits, and structures whilst the medieval manor house survives as ruined walls standing up to 1.6m high. The subject of a series of excavations from 1955 onwards, Crane Godrevy was found to be a round with medieval re-occupation. The round was defined by a revetted bank and outer rock-cut ditch with traces of internal huts defined by settings of post holes. Pottery finds, including sherds of Samian Ware, buff amphora ware and local coarse wares, suggested an occupation range from the 1st century BC to the 2nd or 3rd century AD. The site was subsequently reoccupied in the 12th century by at least two small rectangular buildings with rounded corners. These were associated with pottery consistent with a date of 1100. A longhouse was subsequently built over these buildings, probably between 1150 and 1250. Wings were added to this later building in the 14th century. A second building was erected in the 16th century and abandonment took place in the end of the 17th century because of encroaching wind blown sand. The family who owned the manor had taken the name of Godrevy by the mid-13th century and by 1310 Henry de Godrevy owned not only the manor, but several other properties. Crane Godrevy was a subordinate manor within the Manor of Tehidy and was basically a farm with extensive field systems. The house was known to be deserted in 1510 when Crane Godrevy passed by marriage through Joan daughter of William Godrevy who was the last male of that line thus ending the association between the Godrevy family name and the manor itself.
Sources: HER:-
PastScape Monument No:-425102
