More information : [TQ 8188 5665] Moat [GT] (1)
On an estate map dated 1707, the site of the moat is described as the site of the old manor house of Ripple dated approximately to the thirteenth century. [See TQ 85 NW 2] (2).
Homestead moat in good condition and water-filled. (3) Survey of 23.11.61 revised. (4)
TQ 819566. Ripple. Listed as a medieval moated site. (5-6)
The Country Records Office has two estate maps, (7-8), showing holdings adjacent to the Ripple estate. Both depict, in isolation, the position of the moat with the legend "Site of the Old Mansion House of Ripple". Additionally the Biss map relates the tradition that it was one of the "lurking places" of Jack Cade after the failure of the 1450 rebellion. (7-8) A moated enclosure originally about 80m. long and 50m. wide overall, formed by cutting into a slight S.W. slope, necessitating embanking on the lower S.W.side. The moat is now so heavily silted that the retaining bank, 7m. wide is merely 0.6m. high, whilst on the NE side the moat base is 1.3m. below field level outside. The moat is seasonally dry, but may be fed by a spring as well as modern land drains which protrude from the field to the N.E. An old concrete sluice is set into the bank on the S.E. side. The moat varies in width from 7m. to 15m. Cattle and erosion seem to have distorted the plan of the house platform which is now off-centre and of irregular out-line. Its maximum length (N.W. to S.E.) is 50m., and its width 30m; its height is from 0.5m to 0.7m. The platform is level and exhibits a series of excavations which were never backfilled, one long trench and three squarish patches. In one, at a depth of 0.5m the footings of a building have been exposed, 2.5m. long and 0.5m. wide, formed of roughly shaped stone blocks and mortared flints. A quantity of broken roofing tiles is in upcast debris.
Both platform and moat are overgrown with oak,hazel and hornbeam, an extension of the coppiced wood to the S.W.
As the site of the manor of Ripple, the earthwork seems well attested the name continuing in a 17th and 18th century house of some pretension, 200m. to the S.E., (TQ 85 NW 2).
The old manor house was situated at the head of a broad shallow valley. On higher ground immediately S.W. of the present Ripple there are two ha. of pasture which, on a western slope, show a number of undulations, hollows and amorphous earthworks. These are mostly visible in low light and while not readily surveyable suggest the possibility of an area of minor desertion, centered at TQ 81955657, and probably associated with the medieval manor. (9).
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