Chapel Farm moated site

Summary

The earthwork and buried remains of a medieval moated site are located immediately west of Chapel Farmhouse, Ringshall Stocks. The site lies on relatively level ground, approximately 280m north-east of a now-drained shallow valley, within a local landscape that includes several nationally important medieval moated sites. These include: Great Bricett, Naughton Hall, Nedging-with-Naughton, Offton Castle, and The Old Rectory in Elmsett.

Reasons for Designation

The earthwork and buried remains of the medieval moated site at Chapel Farm, Ringshall Stocks, is scheduled for the following principal reasons:

* Survival: as a well-preserved group of remains, with a clearly defined island and four water-filled arms, representing an important moated complex;

* Potential: there is strong potential for the survival of significant deposits, including waterlogged organic material, which if analysed scientifically would enhance our knowledge and understanding of the manorial complex and the wider landscape in which it functioned;

* Documentation: the moated site was the centre of an important medieval manor whose historical context is well-documented, with records that attest to the high status of its owners throughout the medieval period;

* Group value: it stands within a local landscape of nationally important medieval moated sites including Great Bricett (NHLE 1006048), Naughton Hall, Nedging-with-Naughton (NHLE 1006049), Offton Castle (NHLE 1006049) and The Old Rectory, Elmsett (NHLE 1019537).

History

Around 6,000 moated sites are known in England. They consist of wide ditches, often or seasonally water-filled, partly or completely enclosing one or more islands of dry ground on which stood domestic or religious buildings. In some cases, the islands were used for horticulture. The majority of moated sites served as prestigious aristocratic and seigneurial residences with the provision of a moat intended as a status symbol rather than a practical military defence. The peak period during which moated sites were built was between about 1250 and 1350 and by far the greatest concentration lies in central and eastern parts of England. However, moated sites were built throughout the medieval period, are widely scattered throughout England and exhibit a high level of diversity in their forms and sizes. They form a significant class of medieval monument and are important for the understanding of the distribution of wealth and status in the countryside. Many examples provide conditions favourable to the survival of organic remains.

The medieval moated site at Chapel Farm, Ringshall Stocks, has traditionally been associated with the location of Ringshall Chapel and its associated manor, which was built around 1174 by the Benedictine Cathedral Priory of Norwich. In 1294, the Prior of Norwich granted the chapel and manor to the cell of St Edmund at Hoxne. At this time, it was described as a ‘free chapel’ which was endowed with 32 acres of land along with two parts of all the tithe corn and hay of the ancient demesnes of Sir Richard de la Rokele and Robert de la Wythakysham and their tenants in Ringshall. (Page, 1975). It is possible that this is the same 30 acre manor held in 1086 by Robert, Count of Mortain, although Wills (2004), drawing on Copinger (1905), suggests that at Domesday the manor was held by William de Auberville, brother of Roger de Auberville who held 18 manors in Essex and Suffolk. It is not clear when the chapel became redundant, but the last two rectors (one for the chapel and one for the parish church) were recorded in the parish registers for 1494, and the chapel may have closed around Dissolution when the manor was to Sir Richard Gresham (c1485-1549) by William Castleton, the last prior and first Dean of Norwich. On Sir Richard’s death it passed to his widow, and third wife, Isabella, and on her death in 1565 it was vested in Sir Richard’s son, Sir Thomas Gresham (c1518-1579). It is believed that Sir Thomas built a new moated mansion on a site just 230m to the north-west of the moat at Chapel Farm. The site of Gresham’s new residence is depicted as earthworks and soil/cropmarks on aerial photographs taken between 1946 and 2024, and is also observable as a group of slight earthworks on 2022 Environment Agency LiDAR imagery.

Although there are several documentary references to Ringshall Chapel from the late C18 to early C19, most do not refer to its location at Chapel Farm. Chapel ruins are described as still standing in 1764 (Kirby, 1764), while an ancestor of the current site owners, a pastor, John Hitchcock, held regular services in the ‘old part’ of Chapel Farmhouse in the late C18, no reference is made to the ‘old part’ as being a medieval chapel. The first known cartographic reference to the moat at Chapel Farm moat is when it was depicted as two conjoined sub-circular enclosures on the First Edition 1-inch Ordnance Survey map (surveyed 1816-21). Its subsequent depiction on the 1838 Tithe Map, when the moat island had been planted as an orchard, shows the moat with a prominent point at its north-east corner, which appears in part to survive but is not depicted on subsequent OS maps. The OS map also indicates that the northern and eastern moat arms appear to have been slightly straightened by the late C19.

Lewis (1848) states that ‘a wall and window, now forming part of a farmhouse, are the remains of a chapel founded here in 1174, and notes that Thomas Gresham’s mansion stood nearby. The site of the chapel is recorded on the OS 25-inch map of 1885, which shows an arrow pointing to the west end of the farmhouse. Unfortunately, the farmhouse, which is shown to be a brick-building of some age on a late-C19/early-C20 photograph (Wills, 2000), was demolished and replaced with the current farmhouse sometime between 1905 and 1910. The OS map also shows that the moat was still water-filled at this date, with a cart shed imposing on its north-east corner, and the island still in use as an orchard.

An RAF aerial photograph taken in 1946 shows that at least two farm buildings had been erected on the moat island by this date. By 1966, as shown on an OS aerial photograph, one of the two farm buildings depicted on the 1946 photograph has been demolished and replaced with at least two, possibly three, buildings. The island had also been restored to grassland by this date. By 2000 all the buildings had been removed. Sometime between 2015 and 2017 a high-fenced poultry enclosure was constructed on the island, to which a small pond was added by 2024.

In the 1960s and 1970s, pottery sherds were recovered from the moat island by the then owners, some dated to the C13. During the drought of 1976 the moat dried up and was found to measure between eight and ten feet deep when it was cleaned.

Details

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS: the earthwork and buried remains of a medieval moated site are located immediately west of Chapel Farmhouse, Ringshall Stocks. The site lies on relatively level ground, approximately 280m north-east of a now-drained shallow valley, within a local landscape that includes several nationally important medieval moated sites. These include: Great Bricett, Naughton Hall, Nedging-with-Naughton, Offton Castle, and The Old Rectory in Elmsett.

DESCRIPTION: the moat, which encloses an area of some 0.27ha, is broadly irregular in form and comprises two distinct sections that may represent different construction phases. The northern part of the moat ditch encloses a sub-rectangular area, while the larger southern section is more circular. The junction between the two sections on the west side forms a noticeable dog-leg.

The moat arms are water-filled and measure around 10m to 12m in width and 2.4m to 3m in depth, with the eastern and southern arms being noticeably wider. It is believed that the eastern arm was widened in the late C19/early C20, when its eastern side was revetted with concrete sandbags along its entire length. A small section of the northern arm, in the vicinity of a cart-shed standing at the north-east corner, is similarly revetted.

A small extension projecting south-east from the south side of the moat, now widened, likely formed part of a channel that fed and/or drained the moat. Access to the moat island is provided via a 5.5m wide break at the south-east corner, entered through a five-bared gate.

The moat island retains below ground foundations, as evidenced by an undulating surface in the central and northern areas. A slight depression running across the island from the junction of the northern and southern moat sections on the west side may suggest that the southern part of the moat was originally a continuous circle, with the northern sub-rectangular section added at a later date.

EXTENT OF SCHEDULING: the area of protection is shown on the attached map and is designed to protect the full extent of the medieval moated manorial site and includes a 2m buffer zone which is considered necessary for the support and preservation of the monument.

EXCLUSIONS: the scheduling excludes the early 21st-century poultry shed, its associated enclosure, and the pond located on the moat island. Also excluded are the modern statuary, gates, and fences within the site, along with the octagonal shed situated at the entrance to the moat island. However, the ground beneath all of these features is included in the scheduling.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

SF 58

Legacy System:

RSM - OCN

Sources

Books and journals
Kirby, J, Suffolk Traveller, (1735), 208
Morley, C, A Check-list of the Sacred Buildings of Suffolk in Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History, Vol. 19, (1926), 201
Copinger, WA, The Manors of Suffolk: Volume II, (1905), 344-5
Wills, MJ, Chronicles of Ringshall, (2000), 4, 85
Burgon, JW, The Life and Times of Sir Thomas Gresham, (1839)
Blomefield, F, An Essay Towards A Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 3, chapter 39 Of the Priors of Norwich, (1806), 607-10
Lewis, S, A Topographical Dictionary of England, (1848), 668-671

Websites
Information on Chapel Farm moated site from the Suffolk Heritage Explorer website, accessed 1 September 2025 from https://heritage.suffolk.gov.uk/Monument/MSF5324
Houses of Benedictine monks: Priory of Hoxne', in A History of the County of Suffolk: Volume 2, ed. William Page (London, 1975), British History Online, accessed 10 September 2025 from https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/suff/vol2/pp76-77

Other
RAF aerial photography: RAF/106G/UK/1365/FV/7268 (03-Apr-1946)
Ordnance Survey aerial photograph: OS/66011/V/058 (20-Mar-1966)
Aerial Photography for Great Britain photograph (19-Jul-2000)
Aerial Photography for Great Britain photograph (06-Apr-2024)
Historic England aerial photograph: NMR/35397/021 (13-Aug-2024)

End of official list entry

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