| Summary : Hartley Court is a sub-rectangular medieval moated island, covering 0.6 hectares, which is situated within a larger, diamond-shaped enclosure of 3.7 hectares. The island is surrounded by a broad ditch, measuring 5 metres to 7 metres in width and about 1.5 metres in depth, which retains water for much of the year supplied by rainfall and the natural water table. The interior is subdivided by several banks, measuring on average 2.5 metres in width and 0.8 metres high; including a main partition orientated north to south across the middle of the island. A second bank runs parallel to the northern section of the main partition, and the intervening area contains some slight undulations which suggest the position of former structures. This has been suggested as the as the location of the principal dwelling. A range of outbuildings is indicated by three low, square platforms abutting the inner moat bank near the south eastern corner of the island. In the north eastern corner of the moat is a well. The uneven appearance of the ground surface in this location together with the proximity of the well implies the locations of other domestic buildings which are likely to include kitchens, brew and bake houses. The outer enclosure is bounded by a bank and external ditch. The bank averages 3 metres wide and 0.7 metres high and the ditch is generally the same width and about 0.6 metres deep. The boundary earthworks are designed to keep stock, and other animals grazing the surrounding wood pastrure out of the enclosure. This would protect cultivated land within the enclosure providing produce for the homestead. |
More information : (SU 9461 8568) Hardicanute's Moat (NR) (1)
Moat (NR) (2)
Visited April 1927. Water in inner moat-banks of both, steep.
Probably medieval. Many banks and some pits in inner enclosure. (3)
Lands called Hartley Court Moat belonged in the 17th century to the
Eyres of East Burnham. The name may perhaps have been corrupted
into Harlequin's or Hardicanute's Moat, names by which a square
moated inclosure of about 2 acres in the Beeches is now known. (4)
Moated site, with ramparts, quadrilateral in shape with one right
angle. It consists of a single rampart (8 ft high and 20 ft wide)
and ditch, now nearly dry, with a slight bank upon the counterscarp.
There are traces of two transverse banks, running from N to S, and
of another running from E to W. On the E side is an entrance with a
causeway across the ditch. (5)
A trapezoidal-shaped enclosure some 100.0m by 60.0m surrounded by a
water-filled moat some 5.0m in width with an internal bank and, in
most places, an external retaining bank. The entrance is a simple
causeway near the south-east corner. Within the enclosed area are
several dividing banks. The general position of the work, in a
well established wood of some antiquity, and the narrowness of the
arms suggest that this is more likely to be an animal stock
enclosure than a homestead moat.
Surrounding this moated enclosure is a small bank and external
ditch up to 8.0m in overall width, which encloses an area of about
200.0m by 200.0m. This feature may be connected with the moated
enclosure but its exact purpose is obscure.
Published 1:2500 revised. (6)
No change. (7)
Scheduled. Number 138. (8)
Description and history of site with plans and ditch profiles. (9) |