Moated site at Hartpury Court

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 Hartpury Court survives well, despite the partial infilling of the moat and the presence of later buildings. Buried deposits on the island are expected to include the remains of medieval structures, and will contain archaeological information relating to the construction and subsequent occupation and use of the moated site. Within the moat, buried and possibly waterlogged deposits will preserve archaeological remains relating to the occupation and use of the site, along with organic material which will provide information about the economy of the site and the local environment during the medieval period. The history and ownership of the site is reasonably well documented, and it relates to other adjacent buildings of the medieval period.

Details

The monument includes the surviving extent of the moated site, fishpond and associated water management features located on low lying ground about 2.5km south west of Hartpury village. The eastern and part of the southern arms of the moat survive as a waterfilled ditch 12m wide and between 0.25m and 0.75m deep. It is connected to a pond, believed to have been a fishpond, by a leat visible as a depression leading from the southern arm of the moat. The remaining arms of the moat have been infilled, but will survive as buried features. The moat defines a rectangular island 74m north-south and a maximum of 24m east-west. Hartpury Court, a Listed Building Grade II of mid-19th century date, stands on the island and is known to have been built to replace an earlier dwelling. To the north of the house is a Roman Catholic chapel dating to 1830, a Listed Building Grade II, which is now used as a farm store. Hartpury Court, which was also known as Abbots Court, was the property of St Peter's Abbey, Gloucester, until the Dissolution in 1539, when it became Crown property. In 1547 the property was leased to Richard Pates, Recorder of Gloucester, after which date there are no further records of the site until 1794, when the house was used as a convent for nuns from France. A number of features are excluded from the scheduling; these are Hartpury Court, the former Roman Catholic chapel and its brick extension to the east, the tarmac and stone surfaces outside the house which are used for car parking, the breeze-block stable block at the northern end of the island, the stone wall around the church, the stone and brick walls around Hartpury Court, which are Listed Grade II, all post and wire and wooden post fences, metal and wooden gates and gateposts, the concrete surface of the yard to the south of the stable block, and the pylons at the northern end of the moat; the ground beneath all these features is, however, 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:

32337

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Browne, A L, Trans. of the Bristol and Glos. Arch. Society in Richard Pates, MP for Gloucester, Vol. LVI, (1934), 205

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