Moated site at Stubbing's Entry

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 moated site at Stubbing's Entry is a good example of a double moat, and its association with the historically documented De Stebbing family gives it additional interest. The limited excavations carried out in the western enclosure have demonstrated that evidence for buildings and other remains of medieval occupation survive as buried features. Further archaeological information concerning the construction of the site and its subsequent use will be contained in the moat and deposits within the interior. Organic materials, including evidence for the local environment in the past are also likely to be preserved in waterlogged deposits in the lower fill of the moat.

Details

The monument includes a moated site located at the western end of Stubbing's Green, against the parish boundary between Burgate and Botesdale to the north. It is identified as the home of the De Stebbing family who are documented in local records of the 13th century. An early 14th century document refers to `land called Stubbynge' belonging to Bury St Edmund's Abbey.

The moat, which contains water, ranges in width from about 5m on the north side to 12.5m on the south and remains open to an average depth of 1.8m, surrounding all but the south western part of a sub-rectangular central area with overall internal dimensions of approximately 117m east-west by 85m. It is thought that the moat continues as a buried feature around the south western part of the enclosure, where the line of the infilled southern half of the western arm is marked by a shallow, east facing scarp. A narrow causeway across the western arm is not an original feature. The central area is divided into two enclosures by an internal extension of the moat approximately 11m wide and originally continuous, which runs northward from the southern arm for a distance of about 50m, with a shorter length of about 15m, offset to the west, running southward from the northern arm. Between the two is an infilled section, marked by a depression about 0.5m deep in the ground surface and shown as still largely open on a map made in 1840. Within the eastern and slightly smaller of the two enclosures is a sub-rectangular pond, connected by a short channel to the eastern arm of the moat and by the dry remains of a partly infilled ditch to the central dividing arm.

Basil Brown excavated a small area in the western enclosure in the 1930s and found evidence of medieval occupation in the form of building materials, including roof tile, fragments of medieval pottery, and a layer of oyster shells described as a `pavement' about 0.45m below the present surface.

The present house, which is dated in part to the 17th century and Listed Grade II, stands in the south eastern corner of the moated site and is excluded from the scheduling, together with the associated outbuildings, garden walls and paving, a small ornamental pool, the surfaces of modern paths and driveways, inspection chambers, service poles and all modern fence and gate posts, although the ground beneath all these features is included.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

30572

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Proceedings Suffolk Inst Archaeol in Burgate: Stubbings Entry, Vol. 21, (1933), 263
Brown, B, East Anglian Miscellany in 9690: Stubbings Entry, Vol. 30, (1936), 19
Brown, B, East Anglian Miscellany in 9695: Stubbings Entry, Vol. 30, (1936)

Other
Title: Burgate: Tithe Map and Apportionment Source Date: 1840 Author: Publisher: Surveyor: CRO Ipswich: Ref P461/50; FDA50/A1/1a
Copy held by SAU, Brown, B, Basil Brown Archive, 93, (1933)

End of official list entry

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