Possible site of medieval moated house at Cherry Green (EHER 18547)

The house, known as Boreham Hall Farm contains features in the roof that indicate a probable 14th century site. There is evidence that a house and moat pre-existed the current extant buildings.

Monument description derived from merging EHER 18547 and 18548. The house, known as Boreham Hall Farm contains features in the roof that indicate a probable 14th century site, though the listing and other more conventional dates put it much later. The owner suspected that the wide ditches that enclosed it, now partly filled in, represent a moat. Machining in April 1990 through the ditch to the east of the house indicated that this was not a moat, but a wide boundary ditch, about 4m wide at the top and perhaps 3-4ft deep. Such boundary ditches are typical of the Green and were presumably made necessary because of the poor drainage. The 19th century extension on the south side of Boreham Hall Farm has some vertical posts beneath it, and the water table after a dry winter is only about 2ft down. The owner has found much post-medieval pottery (including Metropolitan Ware and Black-glazed Ware) and some 13th to 14th century pottery. Ground levelling in April 1990 to the east of the farm buildings revealed traces (really only crushed brick marking in the line of the north wall) of a house shown on the Tithe map and the early OS maps. This was aligned east-west and to judge from the scanty remains this may have been only 5-6m wide, and was presumably a lobby entry, i.e. post medieval. This fits in with the finds none of which were medieval i.e. a late house site. The best evidence for the existence of this house was in many ways the deep black garden soil that lay to the rear of it. A remarkable feature of the site are earthworks in pasture to the south-east, comprising a few rectilinear stiches enclosing platforms or paddocks. These look like they might be associated with the regular laying out of the green. Although this green is also known as Chaureth Green and Dickinson identifies it with the Chaureth recorded in Domesday, It should be noted that Chaureth Hall is 3/4 mile away and could be the Domesday site. <1>