Possible medieval to post-medieval moat or drainage ditch at Greenfield's Farm (EHER 1274)

Fragmentary moat or drainage ditch. Building recording and monitoring in 2009 has shown a presence from the medieval period.

Original HER entry merged with NRHE data import: Fragments of a moat at Greenfields, Felsted. The house was originally a 15th/16th century hall house, but it has been restored from a poor condition and the north wing destroyed. Grade III. <1> <2> Moated site RCHM 8. Grade II. <3> March 1975. Field visit. Greenfields is as described, but is externally not outstanding, see photograph. The water feature around the house is not a moat, but a sub-rectangular drainage enclosure of irregular cut, it averages about 2.0m to 3.0m wide. <4> 1977. Field visit. Site A on MSRG card. Rectangular, incomplete. Card suggests it may have been a double moat with the site to the south. 16th century building. Wet moat, 6m wide, 1.25m to deep to water, enclosure is raised. Garden and grass in arable (this site or site B, i.e. EHER 1272). Fish ponds. <5> Tracing from Stokes' sketch from site visit and OS 25" is on back of MSRG card and back of SMR sheet. <6> Upper photo of 2 in SMR seems to be of this site. <7> 2009. Watching brief. This work involved a watching brief on the excavation of the pit for the basement for the extension to the house; a detailed survey of the moated enclosure; and a photographic and drawn record of four original windows which were exposed in the listed building during the renovation work. Pottery from the watching brief indicates that occupation of the site began between the 12th and 14th centuries, sometime before the construction of the house in the 15th century. Other pottery recovered indicates activity here in the prehistoric and Roman periods. However, the main period of activity was medieval. The watching brief identified three medieval features in the pit dug for the basement, including a pit, a ditch, and a deep pit or possible well. Medieval pottery sherds collected from the moat indicate tipping of domestic debris into the moat in the later medieval period. The survey of the moat allowed a brief analysis of its form, and a comparison of the current layout of the moated enclosure and its buildings with the cartographic record. <8> Area = 0.7