Monks Garth moated site

Reasons for Designation

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 Monks Garth, Willoughton, exhibits a variety of features including the remains of internal structures and associated ponds and enclosures and preserves the relationships between them. The remains survive well as earthworks and buried deposits and waterlogging in the moat and ponds suggests a high level of survival for organic remains. The site has never been excavated although the understanding of the monument has been increased by a detailed archaeological survey.

Details

The monument includes Monks Garth, a moated site on the eastern edge of the village of Willoughton. The remains lie at the bottom of a gentle slope and take the form of a series of earthworks, including a moated platform, a pair of ponds and other water-control features, and a group of ditched enclosures. The site is thought to have formed part of the manor of Waldin the Engineer which was granted to the Benedictine abbey of St Nicholas in Angers, France, in the early 12th century. At the end of the 14th century, during the Hundred Years War, the property was confiscated by the king and in 1441 was granted to King's College, Cambridge.

The monument is situated in an area of low-lying pasture approximately 100m south-east of the church of St Andrew. In the south-eastern corner of the monument is a raised, rectangular platform, approximately 13m x 18m, bounded on all sides by a moat up to 2m deep and 14m in width. Near the centre of the platform is a rectangular hollow, approximately 12m square, surrounded on three sides by a linear bank. These earthworks are considered to represent the remains of a building which formerly occupied the moated platform.

To the north of the moated site are the remains of its associated water-control system. The moat, which is spring-fed, drains through a linear north-south channel which runs from its north-western corner. Adjacent to the moat on the north are the remains of an external bank, over 30m long and 10m wide, turning southward into the slope; on its northern side is a narrow linear channel. These features form an integral part of the water-control system of the moated site, the bank serving as a dam to retain water in the moat and the channel to drain the water from the slope on the east into the outlet channel on the west.

The moat's outlet channel runs northward into a triangular depression, aligned north-south, approximately 20m long and up to 10m wide. This depression runs into another, adjacent to the north-west, which is larger and rectangular in form, aligned east-west, and approximately 55m long and over 15m wide. Along each of its north, south and west sides is a broad bank and at its north- western corner are the remains of a shallow outlet channel. These depressions are considered to represent the remains of a pair of medieval fishponds which have been altered in the post-medieval period.

In the south-western and north-eastern parts of the monument are a series of linear ditches on the same alignment as the moated site and fishponds. These are considered to represent the boundaries of small closes associated with the moated site which would have been used for cultivation or as animal enclosures.

All fences and modern paving are excluded from the scheduling but the ground beneath these features is included.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

22618

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Lincolnshire: Volume II, (1906), 241
Knowles, D, Medieval Religious Houses: England and Wales, (1971), 85,94

Other
RCHM(E), Everson, P L and Taylor C C and Dunn, C J, Change And Continuity: Rural Settlement in North-West Lincolnshire, (1991)

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