Site Background
Moon’s Moat would have been a special site in medieval times. In about 1300AD the lord of the manor or another important person would have built and lived in the house on the island surrounded by a garden.
Archaeologists found lots of broken bits of pottery from cooking pots and a silver Edward II penny, which shows that the site was in use in the 14th century.
At that time the moat was between 7 to 8 metres wide and about 1.5 metres deep. There was a fine stone wall around the inside of the moat to protect the house and garden and there would have been a bridge across the moat to get to the house.
In the 16th century the house and moat were rebuilt and a new bridge was made. The site seems to have been abandoned by the 17th century. By the 19th century the house had fallen or been taken down and the wood from the buildings and much of the stone from the wall was removed to be re-used somewhere else. The site was grazed by farm animals and then finally left to become overgrown with plants and trees.
On this, and linked pages you will find information about Moated Houses in general, and Moon’s Moat in particular, you can use for teaching purposes
Downloads
The General History of Moated Sites (pdf)
The paper gives you a general oveviews of Moated sites.
Moated Sites and Moons Moat (pdf)
This is a presentation which introduces Moated sites in Worcestershire and then outline a brief history of Moons Moat