Geograph - photograph every grid square

This has been interpreted as a homestead moat dating from the medieval period, but could be much older. It is roughly square in shape with sides about 85m long and an entrance on the east side. The ditch between the outer and inner banks is 3m deep. The inner bank is 2.5m high and had probably been faced with stone. The outer bank is 0.75m high. The interior of the moated site is quite boggy and contains some large boulders, without any clear structure. The medieval remains in the north-west part of the site consist of a long-house divided into three compartments, and a second rectangular enclosure divided into two compartments, interpreted as a stock enclosure. A third rectangular enclosure lies outside the moated site to the east. A bank which runs from the south side of the entrance in a north-east direction merges with a trackway and forms part of a medieval field system on the eastern side of the moated site.
Pastscape: Link Archive Link

The remains are part of a Scheduled Ancient Monument which includes a Bronze Age Round cairn, two Romano-British farmsteads, associated trackway, a moated site, medieval settlement and field system, 900m SSE of Middleton Dean on the lower east slope of Dod Hill
Historic England: Link Archive Link

Apart from the much greater scale of the earthworks here, there appears to me to be an at least superficial similarity between this site and one approximately 1.5km to the north NT9922 : Site of Whinney Hill medieval farmstead

The Northumberland National Park Archaeological Research Framework (p.125) describes it as 'probably of Iron Age date' in comparison to similar sites known at Manside Cross (in Harwood Forest, near Elsdon) and beneath Bremenium Roman fort (discovered by geophysical survey. However, the earlier interpretation (Jobey 1961) of a moated medieval settlement is referred to on p.264, citing similarity to a moated medieval farm, The Fawns near Kirkwhelpington, and other sites.
Link

Only archaeological excavation will resolve this conflict if adequate dating evidence can be obtained.

Medieval moated sites (of which there are more than 5000) are more common in the south and east of England and can be divided into moated manorial sites and the much more frequent, simple moated homesteads. They are usually dated to the period between 1200 and 1325, with the moat often considered to be more to do with status than security. A recent appraisal (Colin Platt, 2010, Archaeol J, 167: 115-133) suggests that rural overcrowding, taxes and famines arising from harvest failures (1315-1322) in the period before the Black Death (1348-49) may have led to increased crime rates, necessitating precautions to protect property taken by the more well-off households.

Created: Sat, 27 Oct 2012, Updated: Sat, 27 Jun 2020