Page 17 - Moons Moat

Moons Moat Redditch Heritage

A map depicting the site today including the surrounding houses of Church Hill
south estate and the landscaping immediately surrounding the site. To the right
is the brook that once fed the moat but sadly today its flow is insufficient to
maintain even a modest water level.

The 1969 archaeologists discovered several barns or cowsheds. There were cobbled
pathways from building to building. One led to what clearly had been a bridge across the
moat. Only a much fuller dig will get much further in what the farm looked like. We don't
even know if it had more than a ground floor, though it seems most unlikely.

The farmer practised a mixed farming routine. Lacking any significant control by his lord,
he presumably farmed in the most profitable fashion. The English cloth trade wanted wool,
so he bred sheep. The wood pasture was good for cows, so he had cattle. His needs for
arable crops would have been fulfilled by areas of ploughed land, very possibly enclosed.
Shepherds, boys and dogs would have prevented cattle and sheep, and probably pigs from
wandering. Excess produce would be sold, perhaps in the local markets at Henley or Stratford
or perhaps taken to Birmingham. The Bishop of Worcester's market at his Alvechurch
manor nearby was probably defunct by the late 14th century.

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