Monument record 0039101000 - Medieval moat at APSLEY MANOR FARM

Plan Form - SUBRECTANGULAR
2 ISLANDS SIDE BY SIDE. LOW LYING SITE. 1908: ALL YEAR ROUND WATER FLUSH WITH BANKS (B3).
NOW DRY. N MOAT C.55M ACROSS, ARMS 5-8M WIDE. OF S MOAT ONLY N SIDE & PART OF E & W ARMS REMAIN; REST RECENTLY FILLED IN. OUTER RETAINING BANK ALONG SW SIDE OF BOTH MOATS. APPEARS STREAM TO W ONCE FLOWED THROUGH W ARMS (B6).
SCHEDULED ANCIENT MONUMENT (B8).

A moated site of medieval date is visible on historic aerial photographs and remote sensing data as extant earthworks and was mapped as part of the Aylesbury Vale Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18604). Located at Apsley Manor Farm, Ellesborough, and centred at SP 82325 08805. A former double trapezoidal moat, the southern moat is not clear on aerial photographs from 1969 where a large farm building has been constructed over the area by 2003. The northern moat is trapezoidal in shape and measures approximately 58x49m at its largest and the earthworks are 5-9m in width. The southern moat extends from the northern moat and measures approximately 59x74m, and 6-12m wide, and is only partly visible as earthworks on lidar visualisations. The south eastern corner could be seen only as an external bank in 1948. There are no clear features inside the moat, the island inside the northern moat has what appears to be orchard trees visible on modern aerial photographs and a linear earthwork, alongside the moat channel, is visible on lidar visualisations. A channel at the north western corner rejoins the watercourse that forms part of the parish boundary between Ellesborough and Great and Little Kimble cum Marsh parishes and leads to the mill pond at Mill Farm (formerly Marsh Mill – see MBC1304). On the west side of the moat low earthworks of possible former boundaries and or buildings can be seen on lidar visualisations. Some of this area is covered by orchard trees in the 1940s so the ground surface is not clear but some features are visible in 1994. The moats and surrounding earthworks fit in to a wide expanse of ridge and furrow field systems, including an irregularly shaped area that seems to have been one contiguous area, crossed by the railway in 1846. (9-12)



(SP 8234 0880) Apsley (NR) (B13).
16th century house with 17th-19th century additions, and a probable 16th century barn. Situated on the larger of two islands surrounded by a moat; the islands being connected by a wooden bridge. The house is timber-framed but the filling is of 17th and 18th century brick, now partly covered with modern rough-cast. (B5)
Remains of a now dry sub-rectangular double homestead moat, centred at SP 8232 0882. The northernmost moat measures, overall, some 55.0m across, the arms are 5.0 to 8.0m wide. Of the southernmost moat, only the N side and a part of the E and W arms remain, the rest of the moat having been recently filled in. It formerly measured, overall, about 80.0m by 90.0m, the arms being 10.0m wide. There is an outer retaining bank along the SW side of both moats. A stream, some 50.0m to the W of the site appears formerly to have flowed through the W arms of the moats. It is evidenced by a long narrow stretch of water (old stream bed?) 50.0m S of the moats,
and now filled in, and by a constructed channel running from the NW corner of the site to the present course of the stream. Published 1:2500 survey revised. "Apsley" is as described above and is not outstanding. Externally, a rough case 18th century building, in poor condition. See GP. The barn is of no great interest (B14).

This record includes National Record of the Historic Environment Information provided by Historic England on 4 June 2025 licensed under the Open Government Licence.