More information : (SJ 79652325) Moat (NR). (1) Homestead Moat - Norbury Manor. Rectangular (260ft by 220ft) wet. (2) Ralph le Botiller succeeded to Norbury on the death of Philip Marmion, AD 1291. According to Erdeswick it was the seat of Ralph le Botiller junior. Miss Burne supposes that Norbury became a manorial residence from this time. (3) Norbury Manor ... "is curious for the antiquity of its building, and is surrounded by a large mote, in some places 20 and 30 yds wide ... The house is now (1801) in a ruined state". (4) In Henry VIII's reign Norbury Manor was sold to the Skrymshers ... The Manor House was pulled down circa 1820. (5) "The Manor House at Norbury was moated, and, although on high ground (Alt 300ft) stood in a hole without much outlook. The moat, with the stone foundations of the house rising from it, and the bridge over the moat by which it was entered, can still be seen. The site of the house is now a garden and the materials have been used in the construction of a farmhouse on higher ground near by." From Plot's engraving (see illustration) showing castellated stonework with Tudor additions, Twemlow compares the house with Stokesay Castle (SO 48 SW 8, AD 1240). (6-7) The moat is accurately shown on OS 6" 1925 and described above. The area enclosed is revetted by a stone wall with the remains of a wall of Tudor-type brick, laid in a pinkish mortar, on the south-west and north sides. The area is now a pasture and the site of the buildings can be seen as an area of raised ground with slight banks running along buried walling. The north and south-western arms of the moat have slight retaining banks and to the north are some small fish-ponds. The farmhouse dates from the 19th century. (8) No change. Published 1:2500 survey correct. (9) SJ 7965 2327; SJ 7951 2332; SJ 9462 2327. Norbury Manor moated site, 8 fishponds and connecting channels. The site includes a raised grass-covered island, circa 60m x 40m revetted by a fine sandstone ashlar wall 2.4m high and surronded by a wet moat circa 14m maximum width x 4m deep. Adjacent to the north arm are two dry fishponds, the larger originally fed by a channel connecting with a stream to the north and possessing a short outlet channel entering the moat at its north-east corner. The moat is further fed by two streams entering its west arm; the southernmost of these brought water from a series of five fishponds some 150m to the west of the moat by a complex of connecting channels, while the northernmost stream collected water from a pond flanked by a substantial bank circa 80m north-west of the moat. Scheduled (RSM) No 13471. (10)
SJ 797233. Site of fortified manor house. Possibly built in the late 13th century, remodelled in the 16th century and demolished in the 19th century. (11)
The probable medieval moat is also visible as earthworks on air photographs centred at SJ 7967 2327. The moat was mapped as part of the Staffordshire National Mapping Programme project. The moat is extant on the latest 2010 vertical photography; the remainder of the features described by the above authorities are obscured by tree cover on the available photography. (12)
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