Page 29 - Moons Moat

Moons Moat Redditch Heritage

of the entitlement of Pershore Abbey it was listed in Doomsday, though it is not known
who owned the manor at the time.

The manor was acquired by the Sheldon family, originally from Staffordshire, in 1544.
This important family was widely connected with sheep farming and held land in Beoley,
Feckenham, Hanbury and Martin Hussingtree. If owned by them this family may have
contributed to the development of the buildings and site at Moons Moat in the 16th century.

Beoley was deparked around 1570, though still shown as such on Speede’s map of 1610.
It is very probable, though it is not known exactly when, that Moons Moat and the
surrounding area would have been sold off for farming soon after this time, as evidence
of the three-field system has been found in the fields surrounding the site.

Some time later Moons Moat declined in importance and could have been used as a cattle
enclosure. It would have been at this period that the drawbridge was replaced by a
causeway. Later deterioration and the removal of stone by Victorians for their houses in
nearby Redditch led to Peter Carmoules writing in 1876..’of Moons Moat at Battens Farm,
it is now grown over with trees; a stone wall of good workmanship was taken away from
the inner ridge some years ago’.

As to the conjecture as to how the name of the moat was derived, Alan Yates comments
that a family named Mons lived in Ipsley in the 12th and 13th centuries; could they, with
a changed name, have been linked with the site? Or was the site named after the naturally
occurring moon-shaped ditch which was adopted for occupation? We have still to learn
the answer.

Alan Yates views summarised by Phil Mitchell

A sketch showing Moons Moats
location in Redditch.

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