Site of Medieval moat remains, Benedict Otes (EHER 780)

Moat remains, survives as a rectangular landscaped pond.

Moat. <1> Fragmentary remains of a moat at Benedict Otes, Writtle (TL 646069). The house was built about 1644 or earlier, but considerably altered. Grade 2. <2> Field visit, 1976 Benedict Otes (name confirmed) is generally as described but modernised and not outstanding. See photograph. Survives as a rectangular landscaped pond at TL 64350687, now around 50m long x 12m wide. Elsewhere feature has been filled. West arm shows as a shallow depression in cultivated land and the north arm is marked by an irregular scarp along the roadside. Of the east arm there is no trace. Published 1:2500 survey revised. <1><3> <4> Tracing from OS 1:2500 (?) is in SMR <5> Probably to be associated with the family of Benedict Otes (1327), name also mentioned 1549, 1562. <6> Other refs: <7> <8> Field visit, 1988 In addition to the remains noted an 'L' shaped, dry overgrown ditch to the SE of the house, and continuing the line of the long axis of the rectangular pond before returning N, probably marks the former course of the moat. This ditch varies in width from 4m at the S, where it appears now in the form of a wide drainage ditch, to 6m wide along the E arm where it has more substance and achieves a maximum depth of 1.5m. At the N the 'irregular scarp' along the road side noted by <4> has much more substance than is suggested and forms a 25m length of well defined N facing scarp marking the N limit of the moat island and the S edge of a low area between it and the road build up; this low area most probably marks the course of the N arm. It seems probable that the large pond to the NE of the house has been cut within the former, now indeterminate line of the moat at the NE. Published survey (1:2500) revised. <9>