Page 28 - Moons Moat

Redditch Heritage Moons Moat

Appendix 1 - An Alternative View - Alan Yates

Largely based upon finds from the excavations at Moons Moat, some local historians hold
a slightly alternative view to that posed in the main part of this text. Alan Yates, formerly
Head of the faculty for History at Bridley Moor High School, Redditch, took part in some
of those excavations and has expressed some thoughts based upon those finds as follows.

Though the majority of finds – of pottery, tiles, the pommel from a sword, for example
– were from the 14th century, the site may have been occupied from the end of 12th
century in what was a naturally defended area on the edge of the Royal Forest of
Feckenham near to a Roman road and a Salt Way route between Droitwich and the Abbeys
of Bordesley and Pershore.

In the centre of the occupation was a building with a thatched roof and wattle and daub
walls, surrounded by a roughly moon-shaped water feature. The building had one room,
probably constructed within a frame. The walls had window slits but no glass. The building
was constructed by placing sandstone blocks at each corner, the large posts resting on
the blocks. At other strategic points other wooden poles were cut into the floor to provide
added strength and stability to the building. The remnants of these post-holes are common
features of excavated mediaeval sites.

Inside, the building was open with a fire in the centre of the room, with a vent in the
ceiling to let out smoke – the people who lived there would have constantly smelled of
wood smoke. The floor would have been covered with rushes taken from the stream and
the moat.

Household goods – mainly of pottery, wood and metal - were made locally and the clothes
the inhabitants wore would be from cloth they wove themselves. They traded goods such
as hunting dogs for items they could not make themselves.

In addition to a moat, Moons Moat was probably first surrounded by a wicker fence to
keep out wolves, foxes and boars, but some time later the moat was deepened and a
drawbridge added. Even later a sandstone wall was added to the inner ridge of the moat,
which further strengthened the site from unwelcome visitors.
To any visitor Moons Moat must have been impressive!

In nearby fields crops were grown, pigs, sheep and cattle were reared. Other animals
were hunted and fish was caught from the moat and the stream which fed it.

From the evidence gleaned from excavations, field-walking exercises and the very limited
documentary research, it is possible that Moons Moat was, for at least part of its existence,
a hunting lodge - a high-status building in the district at this time.

Later additions to the building, which maintained its status, could have been of stone
from Bordesley Abbey, taken after the Dissolution. Certainly some of the stone found in
the island ‘platform’ accessed by the drawbridge was ecclesiastical in type.
That the building was of importance suggests that it may have been linked with an
important family in the area. It may have been owned by Beoley Manor, when as part

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