Page 21 - Moons Moat

Moons Moat Redditch Heritage

Chapter 6 - Murder at Moon's Moat

Moons Moat is the name given to an area of Beoley now part of nearby Church Hill
housing estate. The name refers to the site of a moated medieval homestead which
was excavated when Redditch New Town was being built revealing the foundations of
a house, bridge and moat walls. There is a legend that Lady Mohun haunts the site once
a year and this may be the background to that rumour.

The story of Moons Moat is not one, not two, but three murders. The site belonged to
the Moon family, spelt Mohun. In 1692 Lord Mohun was living in London but despite his
title, he was an evil, dissolute teenager. He was friendly with a certain Captain Hill and
they both fell madly in love with a beautiful
young actress, Ann Bracegirdle. But she had
a boyfriend and wasn't interested in them,
so one dark night they grabbed the
boyfriend, and Lord Mohun held him while
Captain Hall stabbed him to death.

Captain Hall was now a wanted man so he
went on the run to this remote property
which belonged to a distant relative of Lord
Mohun. It was occupied at the time by Joan
Moon, a widow, her three sons and their
half-sister Mariolle. In 1693 in the dead of
night, a Beoley constable walking past heard
two bloodcurdling screams coming from a
woman inside the property. He rushed to
the moat just in time to see a great weight,
something like a body, flung from an upper
window into the moat. He couldn't do
anything about it then but returned with two
colleagues the next morning. No body was
found, only a woman's cloak, but Mariolle
was never seen again.

On the run again, Hill fled just across the
Worcestershire border and stayed at a
well-known coaching inn, the Angel in Alcester. Being well spoken and having plenty of
money, Captain Hi11 was invited into the homes and to the parties of the local gentry.
Al1 went well until he became too abusive one night and pulled out his sword. He was
escorted back to the Angel and disappeared. The licensee said that he had gone back
to London. However in 1837 the Angel closed to become a private house and when the
kitchen was renovated, tucked into a brick oven was a travelling box containing a cloak,
a hat, a fancy waistcoat, various odds and ends and two letters, both addressed to
Captain Hill. So it looks as if he heated the inn for a few days!

Story courtesy of Anne Bradford

Page: 20