More information : (SU 04209431) Nunnery (NR) (Site of)
(SU 04209426) Moat (NR)
A nunnery (not listed by Knowles and Hadcock) surrounded by a moat and said to have existed in the 14th C (2) on the site of Church Farm (3). It is the probable site of the head of the manor of Ashton, left by King Alfred to his daughter, whence it passed to the Church of St Mary, Cranborne and so to Tewkesbury Abbey (4) and was amongst the Abbey's possessions in 1540 (5).
Of the existing remains the east, south and parts of the north and west sides, of this presumably originally rectangular moat, are well preserved. Parallel and external to the south side but for only about two thirds of its length is a linear depression similar in construction to the ditch of the moat, possibly a fish-pond. Surveyed at 1:2500.
Except for the association with Tewkesbury Abbey there seems to be little to support the Ordnance Survey's contention that there was a nunnery on this site. The existing remains are more manorial in context than monastic though they could possibly have been the site of a grange. |