Chysauster

Stone wall fragments of a house at Chysauster

Chysauster is the site of a late Iron Age and Romano-British village of courtyard houses in Cornwall, near the hamlet of Newmill in the west of the county.

The village included eight to ten houses, each with its own internal courtyard. To the south-east are the remains of a fogou, an underground structure of uncertain function.

The site is in the care of English Heritage and opened to the public in season, with an entrance fee.

Location

• Location map: 50°9’40"N, 5°32’25"W
• Streetmap: SW471350

Chysauster is in the south-west of Cornwall, about three miles north of Penzance at 575 ft above sea level. The Iron Age hill fort of Castle An Dinas is less than a mile to the east. Another similar Iron Age settlement is Carn Euny about six miles to the south-west.

Settlement

Entrance to one of the houses

One of the rooms (with a temporary roof)

Chysauster village is believed to have been inhabited from about 100 BC until the 3rd century AD; it was primarily agricultural and unfortified and probably occupied by members of the Dumnonii tribe.

The village consists of the remains of around ten courtyard houses, each around 100 feet in diameter. Eight of the houses form two distinct rows, and each house had an open central courtyard surrounded by a number of thatched rooms. The houses have a similar layout. The buildings are oriented on an east-west axis, with the entrance facing east. The walls survive to heights of up to ten feet. A field system in the vicinity attests to the site's farming practices.

Chysauster has been excavated several times, including a dig by the antiquarian William Copeland Borlase in 1873. Reconstruction work has been carried out on several occasions.

Fogou

To the south of the settlement is an underground passage of a type known locally as fogou (Cornish for cave). Fogous can be found in other places in the British Isles, and are known more generally as souterrains; their purpose is unclear. The fogou at Chysauster was originally recorded as running well over 50 feet in length but was blocked up in the late 20th century for safety reasons. It was recorded around 1847 by Henry Crozier who described it as a "voe or sepulchral chamber".

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Chysauster)

• Chysauster Ancient Village - English Heritage
• Teachers' Kit for Chysauster Village: English Heritage

References

• Cavendish, Richard: Prehistoric England (London, 1983)
• Christie, Patricia Maeve Lascelles: Chysauster Ancient Village, Cornwall (London, English Heritage, 1987)
• Reynolds, P. K. B., Chysauster, Cornwall, Great Britain. Ministry of Public Building and Works (London H.M.S.O., 1960)