More information : SJ 53426273 Iddinshall Hall (NR) (Site of) (NAT). (1)
Idenshaw Hall - noted by Webb (Itinerary of Cheshire, 1622), but
gone by 1810 (Lyson's 2 618).
A large, dry, well-defined moat remains. Traces of foundations
are occasionally reported. (2)
A well preserved homestead moat. The published survey (1:2500,
1910) has been revised. (3)
A large, now-dry, sub-square homestead moat, which measures,
overall, 145.0m by 130.0m transversely. The arms are 10.0 to 12.0m
in width and up to 2.5m in depth.
An outer retaining bank on the S side is 6.0m in width, and up to
1.0m in height, externally. An inner bank enclosing the
island is 6.0m in width, and averages 0.5m in height on the N
side, but on the S is reduced to unportrayable proportions.
A modern causeway midway along the E side may mark the site
of the original entrance.
The site is under trees and bushes but is well preserved.
There are no traces of buildings on the island.
Published 1:2500 survey, 1970, correct. (4)
It is fairly certain that the Elizabethan dwelling of the
Hurlestones was located at this moated site, if not an earlier
monastic house or grange. Various timbers and pieces of dressed
stone are scattered through the copse, which also cloaks a
Victorian artificial fox-earth.
The size of the moat itself and the large area -c, 4 acres - of
the island it encloses, makes the site stand out from other moats
in the Cheshire landscape.
The above, together with the site's "strategic position guarding
or menacing the Beeston Gap", leads the author to suggest the
presence here of an early Roman auxilary fortlet; but it must be
stressed there is no substantive evidence for such a view. (5)
As described by authority 4. The moat appears to have had a
continuous, but now degraded outer bank (see revised model). The
moat itself is very well preserved with straight clearly defined
arms. This would suggest that the feature is "later rather than
earlier", and a late Elizabethan date seems highly probable.
The moat is almost square with the N and S arms being the same
length, whilst the W arm is some 20m shorter than the E giving
a slightly tapered appearance.
The S side is strongly dammed up against the natural ground fall,
but the platform is not raised. Amorphous scarps were visible
internally, but very obscured by tree-planting ridges and
woodland management. There was a slight indication that the two
internal corners on the N side were raised by some 0.2m above
the level of the inner bank.
The assertion that the moat originated as a Roman fortlet
(authority 5) is fanciful and entirely without evidence.
No traces of ancillary features such as ponds or outer
enclosures were observed. (6)
SJ 5342 6272. Iddinshall Hall moated site. Scheduled RSM No 13459.
(7)
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