More information : [SJ 43195885] Lea Hall [T.I.] Moat [G.T.] (1-2).
Lea Hall has been replaced by a farmhouse; the moat remains (3), and some 17th. c. outbuildings (4). (3-4).
A homestead moat, the W. arm of which has been filled in. It is partly water filled. Published survey (25") revised. (5).
No change to field report of 24.11.64. Published survey (1:2500)
correct (6).
The remains of a medieval moated site which was the location of a timber mansion known as Lea Hall. The estate for which this was the manor house appears in the Domesday Book as the property of the Earl of Chester and Bigot of Loges and had lands for seven ploughs. The estate was seized by Robert de Montalt and remained in his family until the death of the last baron in 1277 when it passed to the Crown. In 1337 the manor was granted to the Earl of Salisbury, William Montacute. He sold it to the Calvely family in whose hands it remained until 1714. The house was described as a 'fair ancient timber building' before the Civil War and was still 'an old timber mansion' in 1810. It is not clear when it was built but it was replaced in 1873 by the present farmhouse 100 metres to the west. The house was sufficiently magnificent to put up James I and his retinue in 1617. The moat platform is 52 metres by 43 metres, surrounded on three sides by a substantial moat, 12 metres wide and nearly 3 metres deep at the north western corner where the moat has been deepened by re-excavation. The western arm of the moat was infilled during the 20th century. The remaining arms were full of water until about 1990 and then drained but some water still collects in the northern arm. On the island there is a roughly rectangular mound 23 metres by 14 metres still visible under the turf and this may represent part of the mansion. The remains will also include those of a chapel which used to stand on the platform. Scheduled (7).
The moated site at Lea Hall was mapped from aerial photography and lidar imagery as part of the Cheshire National Mapping Programme project. The northern, eastern and southern arms of the moat were visible on lidar imagery, enclosing an area of approximately 49.25 x 37.63 metres, open to the west, where the present farm buildings are located.
A slighter ditched feature adjoining and to the north of the main moat, with surviving eastern and northern arms, was also visible on lidar imagery and may represent associated fishponds. The exact survival of the moated site was uncertain on the latest 2010 aerial photography due to tree cover (8-9). |