Untitled - Council for British Archaeology

Ian Meadows by local volunteers in the garden (Fig. 49) on the eastern
side of Moat Cottage. Many of the trial holes revealed a limestone
rubble spread across the eastern half of the garden, but this gave
way towards the cottage to much deeper stratification which at a
depth of approximately 1.2 m revealed two Medieval coursed rubble
wall foundations and associated gravelly clay floors which provided
only mid-Medieval pottery. It is now clear that it is beneath
the western half of the garden east of Moat Cottage that substantial
Medieval buildings lie, sealed by dumped soil.
To the east of the present cottage the moat was clearly
re-shaped during the laying-out of the 18th century walled garden.
A large 2 m deep trench A against the north wall showed a substantial,
heavily silted ditch, wmter logged at the bottom. The ditch silts
produced domestic pottery from the early Post-Medieval period. The
section showed that the ditch had been purposely filled in. A
mechanically dug trench at B exposed the edge of a deep, silted ditch
which is possibly the other edge of the ditch found in trench A.
Two similar trenches at E and F confirmed the existence of the
moat and the pond as shown on the enclosure award, both of which
were apparently constructed during the mid Post-Medieval landscaping.
Both were filled by 19th and 20th century débris.
Several problems remain to be solved. It is now clear that the
whole shape of the present landscape is the result of 18th century
replanning. That there was a moat in the Medieval period seems
likely but the evidence is ,not conclusive. The moat exposed in
trench A was silting up during the later 16th - earlier 17th century
and this may have been a Medieval moat that had been previously
cleaned out. Whatever its date it does not adhere to the present
day rectangular plan. The original shape of the moat remains to be
discovered and also to see whether it connects with the two fishponds
to the south, fishponds which may be dated in the light of our
present,limited knowledge to the end of the Medieval or early Post-
Medieval period. A machine trench C across the fishponds did not
provide any dating evidence. A further trench D showed that a
suggested third fishpond did not exist.
More work clearly remains to be done at Moat Cottage to assess
the nature and extent of what from material evidence must have been
a Medieval manor house, the nature of further work depends on
whether the housing development will provide sufficient opportunity
to observe the archaeology. If necessary, some further excavation
may be required to examine an area to the north of the walled garden
where the présence of two completely buried north-south ditches
have been revealed by geophysical survey.
38. IFFLEY,. The Rectory - Brian Durham
A careful restoration is being carried out by the Landmark
Trust, who kindly allowed some excavation in the north block to
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