More information : [SK 5124 2131] Dishley Grange [T.I.] a former grange of the Cistercian House at Garendon (SK 51 NW 25). NE of the Grange, the VCH list a homestead moat which they describe as "a long stretch of moat 32 ft wide and 4 ft deep...so trampled by cattle that it has lost its regularity". (1)
The present house, of modern brick, bears the initials and date C.M.P. 1845; the majority of its outbuildings are 19th/20th century although there is much evidence of re-used material from earlier structures.
The former moat is badly mutilated and only the NE area and slight traces of the NW and SE areas are evident; the present maximum depth is 1.4m. There are no surface indications of a former building within.
Moat surveyed 21.11.60. (2)
Report of Auth. 2 on the house still applies. The `moat' earthworks have had some slight modern alterations due to drainage. They are possibly merely landscaping, and not a homestead moat. (3)
The manor of Dishley was given to Garendon Abbey by Robert le Bossu shortly after the foundation of the Abbey (1133). The hamlet of Dishley would have been replaced by a grange farm by the end of the twelfth century. The grange still existed as such in 1535, supplying most of the Abbey's corn. The rectangular pond (l on plan) may date from this period, perhaps originally forming part of a moated enclosure. The Abbott's barn was still standing in the late 18th century.
Robert Bakewell, the pioneer agriculturalist of the 18th century, was tenant at Dishley for many years and carried out extensive improvements to the irrigation and drainage, including the construction of a canal to bring produce from the more distant part of the farm to the south. The field of earthworks to the east of the farm represents his elaborate irrigation channels [see SK 52 SW 32]. "The gardens are neat, and seem cultivated more for utility than show, and in them are fishponds, well stored and supplied with water." (Nichols 1804, 764). (4)
Two fields beyond the main Grange enclosure display an extensive network of shallow ditches, now quite smoothed and eroded, that are the remnants of Bakewell's elaborate system of irrigation channels. The most distinct of the earthworks in this area is a series of linear hollows immediately to the north-east of the house. Although now disconnected they form an irregular U-shape that could once have been a single continuous feature, and it has been suggested (see authorities 1 and 2 above) that these may be the remnants of a medieval moat. The hollows survive to a depth of between 0.6m and 1.0m; an additional section closer to the house was also recorded during survey, 0.4m in depth and possibly representing an in-filled part of the same feature or series of features. No evidence of any internal structures could be seen, but such survival would be unlikely in an area so heavily re-worked. It is also possible, however, that they originated as fishponds, possibly created during the monastic phase of the grange and certainly mentioned as being in existence in the gardens by 1804 (Nichols, in authority 4). Given the known history of intensive development at this site it is not unlikely that a combination of the above is true and that the ponds have been extensively re-worked and their function altered over the centuries.
Broad ridges circa 6.5m wide are visible within an area enclosed by the linear hollows. These are probably the remnants orchard ridging (three fruit trees of some antiquity still stand within this paddock) although it should be noted that they are of similar width and orienation to the ridge-and-furrow recorded to the south-east of Dishley Grange in fields adjacent to a deserted medieval village [see SK 52 SW 15]. The ridges are overlain by a very regular rectangular platform 20m by 32m, defined by a low scarp no greater than 0.3m in height. In places, the turf covering is absent revealing brick courses of the same height. This firm levelled area is definitely practical rather than ornamental in nature - perhaps a former tennis court. (5) |