Monument record 1976/2 - Belgrave moated site and medieval garden - Medieval Garden

<1> Turner R C & Sale C B, 1986, A Medieval Garden at the Belgrave Moat, Cheshire, Vol 69 1986, 59-77. Journal of the Chester Archaeological Society. (Article in Journal). SCH100.

Garden earthworks N & W of Belgrave Moat. N side narrow, linear bank 12m wide, forming horn at NE end. NW end circular mound,1.8m high, surrounded by silted ditch 3m wide. Flat top,11m diameter base of mound 16m diameter.To S is lower triangular mound. Earthworks trenched 1986 by Turner & Sale. Trench on top of circ mound revealed central, rectangular pit with rounded corners & flat bottom. Filled with brown loam & red clay & with parts of 3 med pots. Interpreted as flower bed. Ditch round mound 3m wide & flat-bottomed. Mound top to ditch bottom 2.2m. Ditch between triang & circ mounds 4m wide at top,2m wide at bottom. Old ground surface consists of black silt c.0.2m deep & underlay both mounds. Under part of triang mound were 3 postholes. Trench across N linear mound showed it was capped with red clay & produced small amount of med pottery. Mounds in garden designed to be surrounded by water, prob with bridges, lawns & flower beds. Poss surrounded by hedges. Horn at NE end poss prospect mound

<2> Ordnance Survey, 1870-1982, Ordnance Survey Archaeological Record Card, SJ36SE2/1964 (Index). SCH2487.

Surveyed at 1:2500. in 1959 and revised in 1975. Shown on Illustration card

The moat, which is situated in a copse, has an average width of 10.0m and depth of 1.4m. Except for some small areas of water, the bottom is marshy. There is no trace of an entrance. The interior has been much disturbed by drainage ditches and no traces of building foundations were seen.

The material excavated from the moat appears to have been dumped along all four sides to form banks 10.0m wide and some 0.9m high but apart from the west side the outer slopes of these banks have
been re-cut to form drainage ditches, field boundaries etc.

At SJ 38996058 is a flat-topped mound 1.5m high, surrounded by a dry ditch 2.5m wide and 0.9m deep. It has been destroyed by a modern drainage ditch on the N and W; a spur extends for 16.0m
to the SW.

The purpose of the mound is obscure. It is higher than the level of the ground within the moat. It may be associated with a bulge in the outer slope of the moat near the NW corner and may
represent an earthwork (?motte and bailey) pre-dating the moat, but the ditch of the mound was probably re-cut to drain the moat.

<3> English Heritage, Various, Schedule Entry (Scheduled Ancient Monuments Amendment), 13462 (Scheduling Record). SCH2950.

The monument consists of a rare and unusual example of a moated site flanked on three sides by what limited excavation has proved to be a medieval garden. The site comprised a trapezoidal island c.83-96m x 76-83m currently heavily vegetated by tall grass, nettles and thistle, and surrounded by a predominantly waterlogged moat 12m wide x 2.5m max. depth. Access to the island is presently via a causeway across the E arm, however, there are traces of another causeway across the S arm. In the W arm is an oval mound considered to have carried the pier or abutment of a bridge. The moat is surrounded on its N, W and S sides by a broad berm or bank and an outer ditch. On the S side the berm is flat and extends into the modern field for c.21m to where its 6m wide outer ditch has become flattened. Along the N side there is a narrower but better defined linear bank 12m wide, tree covered, and projecting at the NE corner to form a `horn'. Its outer ditch is still used as a field boundary. The complex in the NW corner is dominated by an almost circular mound 16m dia x 1.8m high and surrounded by a silted ditch 3m wide. Immediately S is a lower triangular earthwork. These features are cut out of the berm forming the W side of the site and the ditches surrounding them are connected to the moat. The outer boundary ditch on the W side is flatter and broader than those on the N and S and resembles a holloway.

Belgrave moat was built at the end of the 13th century by Richard the Engineer, one of Edward I's leading military engineers and the man responsible for much of the work on the Welsh castles at the end of the 13th and into the 14th century. It passed to the family of his daughter by marriage, but by the end of the 14th century is likely to have been abandoned as a residence and farmed by a local family. From then on, and certainly from the beginning of the 17th century, it has not been occupied.

Belgrave moated site remains in good condition and is a rare and unusual example in England of a medieval moated site and associated garden. The documentary evidence indicates the monument was created at the end of the 13th century by a royal servant at the time that the medieval English garden began to flower. Knowledge of gardens of this period is almost entirely documentary thus the extant example at Belgrave offers considerable archaeological potential for gaining information of the flora, layout and other individual elements utilised in creating a medieval garden.

<4> Cheshire Gardens Trust, 2015 - 2021, Cheshire Gardens Trust Research and Recording Chester City Reports, Belgrave Moated Site and Medeival Garden, 2016 (Unpublished Report). SCH9313.

Garden earthworks include a probable prospect circular mound, triangular mound and associated ditches.

<5> Cheshire Historic Environment Record, 1989, Jill Collens' Aerial Photographs, 6.0500 - 6.0502, 6.0573-4 (Aerial Photograph). SCH9711.