A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



NOTTINGHAM. The castle of Nottingham has been included in Class A 

 on account of its natural position and the deep fosse which cuts off a 

 rocky promontory, otherwise it would have been recorded in this section, 

 as in mediaeval days its main features were those of a mount and bailey 

 stronghold. 



HOMESTEAD MOATS 

 [CLASS F] 



These earthworks occur in considerable numbers throughout the length 

 and breadth of the county. In nearly every case they appear to be rect- 

 angular in form, and composed of raised areas with a fosse or ditch 

 strengthened by water. They appear to mark the original sites of the lords' 

 residences in their agricultural centres. 



In some instances, as at Hodsock, etc., they are still occupied, the moats 

 being spanned by bridges and defended by gate-houses ; in others, as at 

 Wiverton and Colwick, they were abandoned centuries ago, and the manor 

 houses or halls rebuilt on the open land adjoining. 



In other instances, as at Clifton near Nottingham, and Holme Pierrepont, 

 the line of the earthworks has been destroyed, the manor houses or halls and 

 the adjacent churches remaining as their record ; or, as at Whatton, Norwell, 

 and Weston, they remain as landmarks in the grass fields adjoining the 

 churches. They constitute a subject upon which careful study would meet 

 with ample reward. 



At Stanton on the Wolds, situate in an ancient territory called Seggeswold, 

 from which Sixhills, of old Seggeshill, in the neighbouring county of Leicester, 

 drew its name, the area enclosed is about four acres. An enclosure at Gams- 

 ton, on the right bank of the River Idle, is equally large. An enclosure 

 suggestive of ancient origin occurs at Wilford, near Nottingham, in which the 

 village itself is situate, the centre of its river bank being the site of the 

 ancient ford, opposite to which on the Nottingham side a pre-historic 

 dwelling site or settlement was found when sinking the shaft of the Clifton 

 Colliery. 



A fine enclosure occurs on the right bank of the River Ryton at Scrooby, 

 in which the old archbishops of York had one of their Nottingham palaces. 1 

 Leland describes it as ' The great manor place standing within a moat, longing 

 to the archbishops of York.' It had a bridge and a gate-house, and was 

 walled round in the middle ages. The fosse is silted up, and the rough area 

 is a pasture field containing a farmstead. 



At Rolleston, near Southwell, are extensive moated areas, occupied down 

 to the seventeenth century by the Neville family, now a pasture field near the 

 church. 



At Sibthorpe, near the Fosse Way, there is a considerable area enclosed 

 by a moat, now forming a swampy depression. At Coddington, two miles 

 east of Newark, in a slight depression on the Beacon Hill, is a well-preserved 

 moated site ; two of its four sides are somewhat elongated. 



At Granby, or Sutton, hard by, in the vale of Belvoir, a great manor 

 temp, Edward the Confessor, a moated site remains, the interior of which is 



1 Bygone Notts, p. 248. 

 308 



