Norfolk Heritage Explorer

Location

Full description

Moat (OS).
Rectangular, raised interior. Under plough. Fishpond adjoins on southeast. A subsidiary arm, not marked on Ordnance Survey, runs east from west arm 3/4 way across interior. In centre of interior burnt clay and soil turned up by plough. Pottery occurs in three groups: - interior (context 2) outside east arm (context 3) and outside south arm (context 4). Ranges from early medieval ware to medieval ware, very little glazed. Lava quern also found, but significant absence of building material.
A. Rogerson (NAU), March 1977.

Addenda - group context 2 spreads outside west arm slightly. Group context 4 includes burnt flints and is around 7m x 7m.
Is this the 'Site of Belhouse Hall' mentioned in (S1)? Compare to Bellars Grove to south.
E. Rose (NAU), 21 January 1982.

Norfolk NHER describes site as 'under plough'. NAR Record provides more information on condition of moats: southwest and southeast arms remain waterfilled, although encroached upon by plough. Northwest and northeast arms are described as so reduced by cultivation that slope detail is non-surveyable.
Information from NAR Records.
M. D. Leah (NAU), 17 December 1990.

Site now almost completely flattened under the plough. A slight depression may mark part of the site.
H. Paterson (NLA), 19 November 1996.

This has now been totally destroyed and is invisible from the footpath that crosses the site.
E. Rose (NLA), 5 October 1998.

July 2010.
This moated site and associated linear features are clearly visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs (S2).
A. Cattermole (NLA), 21 July 2010.

The central grid reference for this site has been altered from TM 1416 9890 to TM 1425 9889.


March 2012. Norfolk NMP.
The site of a former medieval moat is visible as a combination of extant water-filled ditches, plough-levelled soilmarks and cropmarks (S1-S8) on aerial photographs. Although, as stated above, it is now largely plough-levelled. The identification of an additional enclosure ditches, fish ponds and associated trackways and boundaries to the south and east has altered from the central grid reference to TM 1425 9889.
The site consists of an oblong platform surrounded with a moated enclosure at TM 1416 9893, and with another smaller platform conjoined to the west. The original extent of the surrounding moats and drains was hard to accurately define in places due to them looking different on aerial photographs from different years, however the mapping is felt to give a good guide to the sub-surface features. To the east of the moated enclosures is a series of interlinked fishponds forming a chain continuing to the southeast of the main moat. An additional fishpond to the west of those mapped is depicted on the Ordnance Survey Second Edition map (S9) and was therefore not mapped. To the east of the site is broad boundary ditch or hollow way, which links up with an oblong pond and trackway still in use on the Ordnance Survey Second Edition map (S9). Another curving boundary ditch/drain to the north appears to form part of the same layout. This feature is depicted on the 1838 Wreningham Tithe map (S10), but was included in the mapping as it formed a part of the overall plan.
S. Horlock (NMP), 07March 2012.

Monument Types

• BANK (EARTHWORK) (Medieval to 19th Century - 1066 AD to 1900 AD)
• BUILDING PLATFORM (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• ENCLOSURE (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• FISHPOND (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• GREAT HOUSE (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• HEARTH (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• MOAT (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• MOUND (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• PLATFORM (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• TRACKWAY (Medieval to 19th Century - 1066 AD to 1900 AD)

Associated Finds

• POT BOILER (Lower Palaeolithic to Late Iron Age - 500000 BC to 42 AD)
• POT (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)

Protected Status

• SHINE

Sources and further reading

Related records - none

Find out more...

• Parish Summary: Wreningham (Parish Summary)
• Parish Summary: Wreningham (Parish Summary)