Monument record 0053000000 - 200YDS SE OF MURSLEY CHURCH

Plan Form - RECTANGULAR
HOMESTEAD MOAT (B1).
PROBABLE HOMESTEAD MOAT, DRY, UNDER PERMANENT PASTURE. C.45M NW/SE BY C.40M TRANSVERSELY.10M ARM EXTENSION AT SW CORNER. ARMS FROM C.10M & 17M WIDE, WITH UNUSUALLY STEEP SIDES AVERAGING 2M DEEP. SPLAYED GAP IN EXTERNAL BANK OF S ARM PROB REMAINS OF SLUICE. SURVEY AT 1:2500 (B2).
SCHEDULED (B3)

A medieval moat is visible on historic aerial photographs and remote sensing data as earthworks and was mapped as part of the North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18304). Located in a small close on the west side of Main Street, Mursley, opposite Cedars Farm and centred at SP 81825 28365, the moat, named Homestead Moat, is located in a piece of ground known locally as ‘The Pits’. A rectangular moat ditch encloses a rectangular platform about 25 x 20 metres. The moat ditch has a NW facing side about 8 metres wide and 37.5 metres long: the NE facing side is 6.5 metres wide: the SE facing side is 13 metres wide and 39 metres long, with a further 12 metres extneding SW: and the SW facing side is about 7.5 metres wide and 37 metres long. An earthwork bank about 50 metres long flanks the outer bank of the SE facing side, about half along which is a gap or breach of about 7 metres that would have prevented the moat holding water that appears to be a post-medieval event. Further ditches extend S from the moat, flanked on the east side by an earthwork banks, which may be associated with the breach in the moat wall as the ditches overlie part of a block of medieval ridge and furrow cultivation (5-7).