Medieval moat, Imbers (EHER 950)

Moat with associated farm buildings and house.

Original HER entry merged with NRHE data import. Homestead moat at site of Imbers north of the church. <1> - <3> Field survey OS in 1976 said site could not be confirmed on the ground. Present buildings (modern) are surrounded by an enlarged drainage ditch, averaging 6m wide x 1.6m deep, following a sub-rectangular course around the north boundary of the property, at present dry. A pond to the south, with a depression running away to the north may represent a moat destroyed by garden and farm development. <4> <5> Name mentioned 1335, 1346, 1414, 1453, 1542-1545, 1568, 1578. <6> Moat, with house and another building within, are shown on the Walker Map of 1623. <6> On old records variously named Embers, Imberds, Embirds. A prebendal manor. About half of moat exists, buildings are fairly modern. It was an irregular pentagon in form, bordering the road on two sides with at least two other sides surviving as boundary ditches. On Walker Map it has two entrances, is complete. By the 1839 Tithe Map the moat was incomplete. This source gives background information on the parish's history and its other moats. <8> Incomplete, irregular. <9> <11> OS plan card is in SMR. <10> October 2008: The historic building survey describes a late 18th century or early 19th century timber-framed barn with reused 12th century to 13th century timber elements, and a group of 19th century to 20th century farm buildings. An evaluation of three trenches uncovered two 19th century rubbish-pits which may be contemporary with the last few decades of the life of a house which stood here in 1623 but had been demolished prior to 1839. Ten medieval architectural fragments found in a residual context under the piggery yard almost certainly derive from the nearby church of St Andrew. Documentary sources indicate a 12th century origin for this site, but the date of the moat (now mostly filled in) is not known. Apart from the architectural fragments, no material contemporary with or pre-dating the 1623 house was revealed during this evaluation.<11>