Boys Hall moated site, 410m north west of The Grange

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 of Boys Hall survives well as an example of a moated manor, unencumbered by modern structures, and will contain archaeological information relating to its construction and occupation during the medieval period and subsequently. The earthworks of the moat and external bank, which are impressive in scale, remain intact, and on the larger of the central islands there is visible evidence for the demolished hall which stood there. Further remains of this hall and associated structures, including buried foundations, will be preserved beneath the ground surface. Organic materials, including evidence for the local environment in the past are likely to be preserved in waterlogged deposits in the moat, and evidence for earlier land use may also to be preserved in soils buried beneath the external bank. The monument has historic associations with the moated site of Flixton Priory, situated approximately 550m to the east, and also with Flixton Hall, built originally in about 1615, and these associations, together with the documentation relating to ownership by the Tasburgh family, give it additional interest.

Details

The monument includes Boys Hall moated site, which is located on the south side of the valley of the river Waveney, approximately 500m south west of Flixton parish church and 550m WSW of the site of Flixton Priory, which is the subject of a separate scheduling.

The moated site is roughly triangular in plan overall and contains two enclosures of unequal size separated by a single arm of the moat. The southern enclosure, which is the larger of the two, forms an irregular quadrangle, concave on the north side. The central island, measures approximately 76m east-west and with north-south dimensions widening from approximately 37m on the west side to a maximum of 59m on the east. It is surrounded by a large moat which ranges in width from approximately 18m on the south side to 6m on the east and has a visible depth of up to 2m below the prevailing ground surface level. The moat is silted but contains some water, fed by an inlet in the eastern end of the southern arm. The apparent size of the moat is increased by a broad external bank up to 1.5m in height which borders it around the west and south sides. The tail of the bank is skirted at a distance of approximately 11m from the lip of the moat by a partly infilled ditch, visible as a linear hollow approximately 3.5m wide and 0.3m deep.

The smaller enclosure which forms the northern part of the moated site and is perhaps a later extension, is sub-triangular in plan, with a central island which has maximum dimensions of approximately 40m north-south and 41m along the southern side. On the east and west sides it is defined by two converging ditches which issue north east and north westward respectively from the north western and north eastern angles of the moat around the southern enclosure. The two ditches contain water and are narrower than any part of the moat to the south, with a width of up to 4m and more steeply sloping inner edges. The external bank which borders the southern and western arms of the moat to the south continues alongside the ditch on the west side, but with diminished height and width.

There is documentary evidence for the existence of a manor house on the moated site in the 16th century and, although nothing of this remains standing above ground, evidence for a demolished building is visible in the larger, southern enclosure. A low mound, containing numerous bricks of medieval or early post-medieval type, covers an area approximately 35m north-south by 20m east-west in the north eastern part of the central island, perhaps marking the site of the manor house. Towards the southern end of this mound, near the centre of the eastern half of the island, is a rectangular brick well head, vaulted above a largely infilled circular shaft.

Boyse manor was a sub-manor of Flixton. Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries it was owned by the Tasburgh family and it is mentioned in various wills and other documents of that period. An undated inventory of the late 16th century, headed `A note of what is lefte at Boyse Haule with Mr Edward Tasburgh' provides details of the manor house which show that it was probably a comparatively small building. Boys Hall is said to have been used subsequently as a game keeper's lodge and to have been demolished before 1914, when a summer house for Flixton Hall was constructed on the moated site. The summer house was removed when the hall was sold in 1932.

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:

21449

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Evans, N, Proc Suffolk Inst Archaeol in The Tasburghs of South Elmham, Vol. 34, (1979), 269-280

Other
NMR TM 38 NW 12,

End of official list entry

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