Page 23 - Moons Moat

Moons Moat Redditch Heritage

Chapter 7 - The Excavation Of Moons Moat

The first excavation of Moon’s Moat was started in 1969 and continued most weekends
until August 1970 – permission granted to excavate by Mr E Bomford. Later the land
was acquired by the Redditch New Town Corporation, who allowed the excavation to
continue. The excavation was undertaken by Mr M D W Wise and Mr C P Medley, on
behalf of the Redditch New Town Archaeological Committee and the Department of the
Environment.

The following is a summary of the excavation results (Wise and Medley, 1970-1971).

The level area of the site measures approximately 27 metres by 20 metres and the shape
and contours are well preserved. It was possible to see fragments of white sandstone
on the eastern edge of the site and a scatter of more stone on the northern sloping edge
at the narrowest point of the moat. An antiquarian, Carmouls, makes reference in 1826
“a stone wall of good workmanship was taken down from the inner ridge some years
ago”.

The first excavation
of a two metre
section across the
centre of the site
revealed a cobbled
surface which led to
the edge of the
island. Pottery
dated to the 18th
century was found
on the surface.
There was also a
carefully laid series
of dressed
sandstone blocks
resting on a
prepared red marl
(clay) surface to
the south of the
cobbles. To the
south of this stone
Picture taken during the excavation of Moon s Moat in th 1970’s
was a broken stone
area with postholes
within it. Later this
western side of the
site was stripped completely to reveal that the cobbles were part of a rectangular clay
area, probably an interior floor surface, and there were sherds of 14th century pottery
associated with it.

Further cobbled areas on clay were uncovered to the south and an intriguing arrangement
of post-holes which suggested the original timbers would have formed a tripod

Page: 22