Page 18 - Moons Moat

Redditch Heritage Moons Moat

Chapter 4 - The Beginning of the end

History is the story of the successful. The failures rarely get a mention. The farmers of
Moons Moat were successful for they may have lived there for almost 500 years. No doubt
the roof and much of the house had-to be regularly rebuilt. In the 16th century, a period of
rising prosperity, the farm house was extended - like so many other half timbered houses in
the area. Only a full archaeological dig will discover what additional facilities were included
but it is most likely that a fireplace would be built and therefore a chimney. No Tudor
farmhouse would be without them. The owner probably could not resist fancy half timbering
on his extension. Those who lived at Tookey's farm in Astwood Bank or two of the Bean Halls
in Bradley Green were certainly unable to resist flamboyant extensions. It is also likely that
a large pond to the east of the Moons Moat was excavated and the substantial flood bank on
which the present public footpath stands were part of this 16th century extension.

The plaque beside Moons Moat says that the farm was abandoned in the 17th century. This
may be so, but for much of the Redditch area the period from 1550 to 1640 was one of
prosperity with new or extended farmhouses appearing, built with the profits of agriculture.
Nor does this early date for abandonment fit with the finding of 18th and 19th century pottery
on one of the cobbled surfaces excavated in 1969. A key, almost certainly 19th century,
was found in the early 1970s large enough to fit a farmhouse door. This suggests that the
farm was occupied until some time in the 19th century, abandoned because the house was
very old and inconvenient, perhaps because the moat was proving impossible to maintain
and no doubt because the farm was not on a road or anywhere near one. Perhaps the final
straw was the temptation offered by industry in Birmingham, the Black Country or even the
rapidly rising town of Redditch.

Sheep and cattle rearing were still being carried out on the lands of Moon Moat Farm when
Redditch Development Corporation acquired most of the town for industry and housing. It
is possible that the early farmers of Moons Moat enclosed land from the wood-pasture for it
is easier to look after sheep and cattle in hedged fields. It is possible to do without hedges
as is still practised on Exmoor, Dartmoor and parts of the Peak District. Presumably sheep
dogs and young boys ensured that animals were not lost.

The farmhouse may have held up to 20 people. If it was occupied from the 14th to the 19th
centuries, some 20 generations were born, lived, worked and died there. Clearly a large
number of people called Moons Moat their home before the last of them locked the door
-dropped the key perhaps - and went off to do something else.

Moons Moat does not appear in historical records. It does however make an appearance in
a story entitled, "The Legend of the Sheldon Plate". It is found in the Guide Book of St
Leonard's Church, Beoley, produced in 1970. The then Vicar, the Reverend E.D. Coombes
writes that "the Guide has been compiled from many sources, too numerous to acknowledge".
He gives no source for the Sheldon Plate story. It is unlikely that Mr Coombes wrote it. It
reads like some of the more imaginative fiction produced in "The Redditch Indicator" of the
1860s and 1870s. It might well have been produced by the Reverend C. V. Langston, Vicar
of Beoley from 1882 to 1887, who specialised in imaginative history, practical jokes and
fundraising.

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