Monument record 203 - Possible moat

<1> Ordnance Survey, 1870-1982, Ordnance Survey Archaeological Record Card, SJ75SW3 1971 (Index). SCH2487.

Small trapezoidal feature with a strong ditch. Moat-like but mutilated or unfinished. Not shown on 1st edition OS. Therefore, may be wartime earthwork.

<2> Manchester Museum Record Card, /654 Wagstaff P 1978 (Book). SCH2811.

South of possible moat and other features is permanent pasture. Ground marshy. Moat dug away on north and east. No access way found.

<3> Various, Various, Oral communication to the HER, Turner R C 1988 (Oral Communication). SCH2330.

Site stands above marshy ground. Ditch survives well to north-east and south-east but less prominent on other two sides, some later pits on platform surface. Secondary enclosure to south-east is less complete but has rectangular pit at centre. Odd site for medieval moated manor, so function is not clear.

<4> Various, Aerial photographs, CPE/UK/1935 4372 RAF 1947 (Aerial Photograph). SCH128.

Site appears very angular on the 1940s RAF Photograph suggesting that the site may not be a moated site.

<5> Various, Aerial photographs, BAP26 1970 Cambridge University Committee for Aerial Photography (Aerial Photograph). SCH128.

<6> J Probert, 1762, Plan of Weston Township, DDB/Q/1/8 (Maps and Plans). SCH2665.

Site appears on 1762 plan of Weston Township in the Delves-Broughton Collection where the field is named as 'Island', thus confirming its antiquity.

<7> Leah, MD; Wells, CE; Appleby, C; Huckerby, E, 1997, The Wetlands of Cheshire (North West Wetlands Survey 4), CH66, p.172, Fig 77 (Monograph). SCH3260.

Recorded by the North West Wetlands fieldwork as the 'Monneley Mere Moat', a 'Moat-like structure in low-lying valley to the south of Crewe Hall'. The trapezoidal platform, circa 30m across, has a number of features suggestive of collapsed internal structures, also a subsidiary platform to the south with a central, oval depression. Both eastern and western ditches appear to have had an outer bank, punctuated by an entrance and a causeway respectively. Given the odd appearance of the earthwork, the interpretation of a war-time structure is plausible, however, a map of Weston Township dated 1762 (Cheshire Record Office) clearly shows the site of the earthwork which is named the 'Island', indicating that the feature existed in the mid-eighteenth century. If not a moat, it could be the remains of another activity on the wetland.

<8> Longley D, 1977-1978, Longley Archive, /no.654 (Paper Archive). SCH2005.