Monument record 0031701002 - MOAT AT BOARSTALL TOWER

Dimensions - Length 140m, Width 98m.
Plan Form - Rectangular.
Moat around Boarstall made when licence to crenellate granted in 1312? Moat & drawbridge shown on Boarstall Cartulary map of 1444. Moat enclosing gatehouse & site of former buildings is c.60ft wide with strong inner rampart. E arm obliterated (B6).
C17 wall replaced arm (SEE 02:001). National Trust survey (B18).
The tower and moat were constructed shortly after 1312 by John De Handlo. Inside the moat once stood the dwelling house and the noted 17th century formal garden which featured box hedges, gravel paths and parterre. After 1777 the garden was abandoned and gradually reverted to grazing land. A new garden was created in 1925 by Antonio Pinzani, but today the interior is grassed with various earthworks clearly visible. A watching brief carried out in August 1999 during the installation of a new sub-station and electrical cabling to the east of the gatehouse and moat, discovered buried foundations, cut features, a mortar spread and substantial amounts of medieval pottery. The red brick foundations may relate to a building within the 17th century garden or a greenhouse noted by a National Trust employee as having been since demolished. The nature and extent of the mortar spread at the western end of the trench remains unknown. The cut feature contained relatively large amounts of medieval pottery and animal bone in good condition, the material may have been disturbed and reburied during scouring works to the moat. The deposits seen under the gravelled drive were highly compacted and devoid of finds (B20).
In August 2008 two resistivity profiles across the presumed infilled eastern arm of the moat carried out by Oxford University's PADMAC Unit identified a possible road or track surface shown on the 1695 map, along with a 2-3m wide and 3m deep feature interpreted as either the base of a garden wall or as the remains of a stone revetment lining the moat. See report for detail (B32).