Moat at Bockenden Grange
View of smaller moat feature west of Bockendon Grange, looking east. 2017.
Image courtesy of William Arnold
Looking towards the moat feature west of Bockendon Grange, showing ditch-like feature running easterly towards the moat. 2017.
Image courtesy of William Arnold
Description of this historic site
A moat, a wide ditch usually surrounding a building, which dates to the Medieval period. It is visible as an earthwork, and is situated 250m northwest of Broadwells Wood, Burton Green.
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Notes about this historic site
1 One of three moats within 200m of each other. This is much larger than the other moats, and was probably constructed in conjunction with the movement of the farmstead, as it surrounds the present Grange; an 18th century building with traces of Medieval work.
2 The moated Grange site and other garden features are shown on an early 18th century map.
- For the sources of these notes, see the
- Timetrail record
- produced by the Historic Environment Record.
Comments
1st series O.S. 1:25000 mapping states shows (in the typeface on the maps that represents antiquities) the moat immediately adjacent to the road as “Bockidene Grange Site of”. It is to the north of the farm known as Bockendon Grange. The stream feeding and draining the moat is upstream of the pools – which were fishponds and probably related to the Grange proper. The three pools are shown on the O.S.inch to the mile mapping of 1831-1835, and the general area of the moat is named “Bokinton”
The other moat (almost due west of the modern Bockendon range) is more problematic. I did not approach nearer than the footpath, but it does appear to be rather small for any substantial building in its centre. Tentatively, I might suggest that it was a fish pool, possibly for breeding. The field in which it is situated shows much eroded signs of ridge and furrows running loosely north to south, which terminate at the bank of a shallow valley through which a stream runs. The moat is on the edge adjacent to the valley above the level of the stream. However, there appears to have been a ditch dug into the top of the side of the valley – it appears to wide to fit in with the ridge and furrows, and being on a lower level would make it impractical as a head land. This “ditch” appears to run from the source of the stream towards the moat. It can be traced quite clearly by its marshy nature and water loving vegetation. This ditch I presume may have fed the moat. Contemporary 1:25000 mapping indicates a bank running at 90 degrrees to the east face of the moat. This may be a bank of a ditch leading from the moat to drain it.
This site is also mentioned as moat 200 m NE of Bockendon Grange reporting a site survey
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