Record Details

NHER Number:3771
Type of record:Monument
Name:Medieval moat and fishponds

Summary

This medieval moat surrounds a rectangular central island. Two rectangular fishponds can be seen south of the moat. The stream and ponds were landscaped as part of Gayton Hall park in the 19th century to form a water feature. Nearby Gayton Hall was built around 1800.

Images - none

Location

Grid Reference:TF 7306 1893
Map Sheet:TF71NW
Parish:GAYTON, WEST NORFOLK, NORFOLK

Full description

November 1976. Visit. Gayton Hall.
Northern arm of lake in grounds of Gayton Hall appears in shape like a moat incorporated into the lake. The arms are wide and quite deep; the interior platform is slightly raised, but there is no real evidence of any buildings. The owner does not know of any having stood here. Hall is about 1800.
E. Rose (NAU), 11 November 1976.

(S1) shows this as just one island in a lake of islands, and not as regular as now. Probably not a moat.
E. Rose (NAU), 5 September 1977.

However (S2) shows moated enclosure as well as two rectangular ponds to southwest called fish ponds. These may well have now been incorporated into the existing pond complex. Former roadway from north turns to east near to present hall and joins B1153 at bend near Millgarden Plantation. This is also on (S3). This not included in NHER area.
See (S4).
B. Cushion (NLA), December 1995.

(S1) says that the first hall was built in 1586 and that the (S2) shows its position AND a moated site (by implication, nearby). However the reproduction of the map included shows only the moat, so this may be unfortunate wording.
E. Rose (NLA) 24 July 1998.

July 2000. Site scheduled.
Ancient Monument Number 30581.
Scheduling description:
The monument includes a moated site located approximately 21m to the south west of Gayton Hall, at the south eastern end of Gayton village. The moat, which is between 8m and 10m wide and water-filled, surrounds a roughly rectangular central island measuring approximately 50m WSW-ENE by 40m. On a map dated 1726 two rectangular fishponds are shown in line westwards from the south west corner of the moat, with a stream named Gayton River which rises in Springhead Plantation, about 280m to the south east, running some 12m to the south of the southern arm of the moat and the ponds and roughly parallel to them. The stream and ponds were landscaped at the beginning of the 19th century to form a serpentine water feature, and the site of the ponds is not included in the scheduling. The southern arm of the moat is joined to this landscaped water feature at its south western and south eastern corners, but much of the original strip of land which lay between the moat and adjacent pond and the original stream to the south of them is preserved in the form of two linear islands, one of which marks the outer edge of the southern arm of the moat, and the moated site otherwise shows little alteration from its appearance in the early 18th century.
It is probable that the moat was occupied by a medieval manor house. On the early 18th century map and in an accompanying field book the moated site is shown and described within an enclosure named as Abbots, which provides evidence of a link between the moat and a manor known as Gayton Abbots, Wendling Abbots or Wendlings. This manor was held by Wendling Abbey before the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and after the Dissolution was vested in the Crown. In 1572 it was granted by Elizabeth I to Thomas Jennyns and Edward Forth, and in 1609 it was granted by James I to Sir Edmund Mundeford, who sold it to Samson Hopes in 1619. Subsequently it was joined with Gayton or Egerton manor, which in 1726 was in the ownership of Robert Iacomb. The manor house of the combined manors at that time was Gayton Hall (now Hall Farm), which had been built around 1587, about 66m to the north. The building now known as Gayton Hall was built as a shooting box at the beginning of the 19th century.
A summer house on the central island, a rustic bridge supported on modern concrete and brick abutments and a modern fence adjacent to the outer edge of the northern arm of the moat are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath these features is included.
Information from (S6) and (S7).
D. Gurney (NLA), 19 October 2000.

Monument Types

  • POND (Unknown date)
  • FISHPOND (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
  • MOAT (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
  • GREAT HOUSE (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
  • GARDEN FEATURE (18th Century to 19th Century - 1800 AD to 1899 AD)

Associated Finds - none

Protected Status

  • SHINE
  • Scheduled Monument

Sources and further reading

---Record Card: NAU Staff. 1974-1988. Norfolk Archaeological Index Primary Record Card.
---Record Card: Clarke, R. R. and NCM Staff. 1933-1973. Norwich Castle Museum Record Card - Medieval. Gayton.
---Secondary File: Secondary File.
<S1>Map: Burcham, C.. 1839. Gayton Tithe Map.
<S2>Map: 1726. Gayton Map. BL 41/4.
<S3>Map: 1813. Gayton Enclosure Award. C/Sca2/129.
<S4>Illustration: Cushion, B.. 1995. Annotated NHER Map of Gayton Hall.
<S5>Unpublished Document: Norfolk County Council. [unknown]. Inventory of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Norfolk..
<S6>Designation: English Heritage. 1990-2013. English Heritage Scheduling Notification. Notification. DNF315.
<S7>Designation: English Heritage. 1994? -2011?. English Heritage Digital Designation Record. Record. DNF315.

Related records - none

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