Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

A medieval moated site is located to the west of Sevington with a post-medieval house & formal gardens. This is the site of the old Boys Hall, and is scheduled as an ancient monument. The moat is 40m by 28m in size and is water filled and in good condition. There is a fish-pond on the south west side and a well preserved group of earthworks to the north west representing the remains of formal garden inclduing a number of complex water features and an additional moat. The enclosing bank and ditch has been completely destroyed on the north and badly mutilated and reduced elsewhere.

Monument Types

• FORMAL GARDEN (Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD to 1900 AD)
• HOUSE (Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD to 1900 AD)
• MOAT (Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD to 1900 AD)

Full description

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[TR 0300 4073] The Moat [NR] (Site of) (1)

"The Moat", on the Sevington side of the parish boundary with Willesborough, is the site of the old Boys Hall, and is scheduled as an ancient monument. The secondary cutting is probably an overflow. (2-4) Homestead Moat, water-filled and in good condition, with a fish-pond on the SW side and minor earthworks on the W and NW sides. The site was enclosed within a bank and a ditch but this has been completely destroyed on the N and badly mutilated and reduced elsewhere. Published 25" survey revised. (5) [TR 030407] The Moat (Boys Hall), Sevington, is in the county checklist of listed moated sites in Kent - December 1979. (6) A rectangular moated site measuring some 40m x 28m with an external amount of ranging width. To the NW a well preserved group of earthworks represent the remains of formal garden associated with the post-medieval core of the site. These include a number of complex water features working with the moat, and an additional moat which clamps the medieval core on its SE & SW sides. (For details see Archive Account). (7)

Area of Neolithic/BA activity found on site along with zone of LIA/Belgic settlement See TR 04 SW 104 & 105 (15)

Additional Info(16)

Watching brief to ensure site was not damaged during environmental cleaning. (17)

From the Natioal Heritage List for England:The monument includes a rectangular medieval moated site and associated garden earthworks situated on low lying ground on the northern side of the broad valley of the River East Stour. The moated site is a NNW-SSE orientated island of 1.6ha surrounded by a water-filled moat between 6m and 15m wide. On the outer side of the north western and south eastern arms of the moat are earthworks indicating the original causeways, which provided access onto the island. Although no upstanding buildings survive, fragments of roof and floor tiles, building mortar and medieval pottery sherds, indicating the former presence of a known manorial residence, were found on the island during a recent archaeological survey of the site. Traces of the buildings can be expected to survive as buried features beneath the present ground surface. Surrounding the moat are the remains of an elaborate formal garden believed to have been laid out in the late 16th or early 17th centuries, some time after the original construction of the moat, but before the abandonment of the site as a residence by the 1630's. These garden earthworks include raised terraced walkways, courts and complex arrangements of linear ponds and other water features designed to enhance the setting of the manor house. These features survive as earthworks up to 1.5m high. The moated residence was the main home of the Barry family from the 13th century until 1588. The Barrys were a leading Kent family, successive members of whom are known to have held important public office in the county during this time. In the 1620's, Thomas Boys demolished the medieval house, using the materials to rebuild his main residence, Boys Hall, at nearby Willesborough. During the excavation of land immediately adjacent to the north eastern boundary of the monument in June 1993, linear ditches containing large quantites of pottery sherds, animal bone and fragments of a quernstone dating to the Late Iron Age (c.100BC-43AD) were discovered. The ditches were observed to extend into the monument and indicate the remains of an earlier Iron Age farm or settlement underlying the later manorial residence and gardens. The fencing which defines the monument is excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath it is included. (18)

Historic England archive material (19)

<1> OS 6" 1962 (OS Card Reference). SKE48371.

<2> VCH Kent 1 1908 428 (I C Gould) (OS Card Reference). SKE50903.

<3> A Saunter through Kent 13 1919 74 (C Igglesden) (OS Card Reference). SKE32853.

<4> AM England and Wales 1961 59 (MOW) (OS Card Reference). SKE33023.

<5> F1 CFW 10-MAY-1963 (OS Card Reference). SKE42515.

<6> Moated Sites Research Gp Report 6 1979 47 (OS Card Reference). SKE47293.

<7> Robert Wilson-North/01-FEB-1990/RCHME: Sevington Moat (OS Card Reference). SKE49282.

<8> Field report for monument TR 04 SW 2 - May, 1963 (Bibliographic reference). SKE5172.

<9> RCHME: Sevington Moat, Kent (Collection). SKE6481.

<10> Sevington Moat/ink survey (Graphic material). SKE6371.

<11> Sevington Moat/pencil survey (Graphic material). SKE6372.

<12> Sevington Moat/report (Bibliographic reference). SKE6428.

<13> Sevington Moat/publication text (Bibliographic reference). SKE6429.

<15> Oxford Archaeological Unit, 1993, Boys Hall Moat, Sevington,Kent Scheduled Ancient Monument No.146 (Unpublished document). SKE6808.

<16> Randle Siddeley Associates, 1999, Landscape Proposals for: Orbital Park incliding Boys Hall, Ashford (Unpublished document). SKE7402.

<17> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2004, An Archaeological Watching Brief at Boys Hall Medieval Moated Site, Ashford Orbital Park, Sevington, Ashford, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE16417.

<18> English Heritage, Register of Scheduled Monuments (Scheduling record). SKE16191.

<19> Historic England, Archive material associated with All Sevington Moat (Archive). SKE54483.

Sources and further reading