A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE 



moat 60 ft. wide. Other works may be traced on the north and the east, 

 but they are mutilated. To the north-east is an embanked fishpond close 



by the River Wreak, from which 

 it has been fed by an artificial 

 channel. Two tumuli are within 

 the area. The railway now runs 

 between it and the Priory. 



KlRBY MUXLOE (XXX, 12). 



' KIRBY CASTLE ' was a fortified 

 manor house of Tudor days. On 

 a rectangular site the walls arose 

 from a moat varying between 

 3 oft. and 40 ft. wide before the 

 entrance and the south-west side 

 respectively ; it gradually widens 

 on the north to 70 ft., and thus 

 continues along the south-east. 

 The Rothley Brook flows past 

 the latter side from which the 

 moat is fed by a channel ; on 

 the south is a sluice and a small 

 lake to receive the overflow, with 

 an outlet for the waters to again 

 enter the river. The revetment 

 formerly existing has gone, and 

 the moat is now being rilled with 

 rubbish. 



Of the defensive buildings 

 there remain the entrance gate- 

 way with two flanking towers, 

 and a curtain wall connecting 

 them with a tower and other 

 fragments, but these belong to 

 another chapter in this history. 



KIRKBY MALLORY (xxxvi, i). Five and a half miles north-east from 

 Hinckley, and one mile north of the village, are the 'Kirkby Moats,' situated 

 in a wood east of the high road. Enormous labour must have been entailed 

 in the construction of these moats, which are almost square in plan, each side 

 measuring about 500 ft. in length. The central plateau, 90 ft. square, is 

 surrounded by three great ditches and a triple vallum. The innermost moat 

 is 1 1 ft. deep, and over 45 ft. wide ; this is surrounded by a vallum 17 ft. in 

 height ; the middle moat, not so wide as the inner one, is filled up on the 

 eastern side for a length of 30 ft., thereby creating a rectangular platform 

 between the two earthen walls. Another platform is found on the same 

 side near the north-east angle, and this is pierced by a short arm of the 

 inner moat which penetrates it eastward to the confines of the outer moat, 

 providing an elongated pit. Immediately north of this branch moat, at 

 the north-east angle of the works, an entrance path curves across the two 

 outer aggers. Indications of two other entrances are at the south-east 



268 



MOAT AND SITE OF HALL, KIRBY BELLARS 



