More information : SK 304006 Witherley. A rectangular enclosure approximately
150 by 75 yds seen west of Pinwall Hall on RAF air photographs.
Not visited on the ground but described as possibly a moat. (1)
SK 30450056. A rectangular ditched enclosure visible, all the western
arm and part of the northern arm waterfilled. (2)
A homestead moat located in a level low-lying pasture field, adjacent
to a brook. Partly shown but not described on current OS 1:2500 plan. It measures overall some 150.0m east - west by 80.0m transversely. The western arm, waterfilled, is 12.0m wide and 1.3m deep; the northern arm is 1.6m deep with a marshy bottom, partly waterfilled, and also 12.0m wide. The well defined eastern arm, 1.3m deep and 10.0m wide, has a slight outer bank 0.3m high. The southern arm, generally 10.0m wide and 1.0m deep, is also partly banked on the outside: there is an area of spoil mounds at the western end from previous cleaning.
Three inlet/outlet channels are visible; two at the eastern angles
and one midway along the southern arm.
The island is generally at the same height as the surrounding
ground and contains near the centre a 1.3m deep rectangular
depression, with a marshy floor, which was probably a fish pond.
To the east an irregular depression 1.5m deep is surface quarrying,
and on the west a hummocky sector with nettles may mark the site
of a building although no debris can be traced.
The feature is clearly visible on air photographs (a), surveyed at
1:2500 (MSD). (3)
SK 3047 0056. Moated site north-west of Pinwall.
The rectangular moat measures 150m x 80m overall and was fed by a small stream on the north. On the south side the moat ran into a second stream via a 20m wide ditch midway along the southern arm. The western arm is up to 12m wide and water-filled and the eastern arm measures about 1m deep and 10m wide with faint traces of an outer bank. The southern arm is an average of 10m wide and survives to a depth of 0.5m on the south-west side and 0.75 on the south-east. A further channel joined the moat at the south-east corner. Two large depressions are evident on the moat island, one of which is the result of later quarrying and a central hollow, circa 1m deep, 25m wide and 40m long, which is considered to have formed the cellar of a monastic grange building within the moat. Pinwall Grange was a grange farm of Merevale Abbey (1148-1538 see SP 29 NE 4). Scheduled (RSM) No 17065. (4)
SK 304006 Moated site - described by the field reviser as slope detail being barely indistinguishable from undulations in the field. (5) |