More information : TL 839028 An incomplete moat at New Hall, Purleigh was identified by P J Cook from a map of the hall dated circa 1600 (1)
TL 8374 0263. The remains of a rectangular moat are visible W of New Hall. The S arm survives only in the SW corner where it is dry and under grass, and has a maximum width of 12m and depth of 0.6m; it is truncated to the S and E by the modern access track from the farm to Chelmsford Road. The N arm was infilled by the present owner about 25 years ago, and now is traceable as a gentle scarp in the garden lawn NW of the farmhouse. The W arm has also been much reduced in both width and depth, particularly in its southern half, by the encroachment of the field to the W now planted as a vineyard, although it still survives as a field drain feeding a pond in the NW corner of the moat. The original external length of this W arm was probably in the order of 70m. The modern pond which now occupies its N end is drained to the N by a combination of the field drain, which may perpetuate part of the original water management system for the moat.
New Hall farmhouse has C19th facades, but the owners say parts date back to the C15th, and as such it may therefore represent the original house that stood inside the moat. Surveyed at 1:2500. (2) |