Monument record 19/4/4 - Ince Manor - moat

For details of Ince Manor Grange and the Grade I Listed Hall and Monastic Cottages, see individual records:-
Ince Manor Monastic Grange - 19/4/0
Hall - 19/4/1
Monastic Cottages - 19/4/2

<1> Ormerod, G., 1882, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, Ormerod G, 1882, Vol 2, p.13 (Book). SCH1389.

In the early 19th century, Ormerod describes he site of the Manor as containing 'rather more than an acre, and was originally defended by a stone wall and a vast moat, hewn in the solid rock: the external wall remains on the south side, and the moat may be traced on the other sides.'

<2> Slater F G, 1919, A Cheshire Parish: Being a Short History of Ince, p. 43-44 (Book). SCH59.

Slater, in 1919, did not observe any features that he regarded likely to be a moat.

<3> Davey P & Williams R, 1975, Ince Manor, Cheshire Archaeological Bulletin, Vol 3, p.24-26 (Article in Journal). SCH7546.

Behind Monastery Cottages, there are features which look like the remnants of a filled-in moat or ditch. This is confirmed in Manor Lane, at the bend immediately to the north of Ince Manor, where a rock-cut ditch can be clearly seen in the front gardens of a pair of recently built houses.

<4> Thompson, P, 1983, Ince Manor: Medieval Monastic Buildings on the Mersey Marshes, p.2 (Monograph). SCH1474.

The site of the manor occupies a plot of circa half and acre, although surviving banks, ditches and boundary walls suggest it extended further. The hall stands on the edge of a rock-cut ditch which runs along its east side and continues southward, underlying Marsh Lane. Part of the rock cut ditch was exposed and cleared out during the construction of a house. It was circa 9 feet deep, 21 feet wide at the top and backfilled with layers of stone and rubble. Further traces of a ditch are visible to the north of monastery cottages, however, there are no signs of a ditch on the south and west boundaries of the site.

<5> English Heritage, Various, Old/Original Schedule Entry (Scheduled Ancient Monuments Description), 13516 (Scheduling Record). SCH4606.

<6> English Heritage, Various, Schedule Entry (Scheduled Ancient Monuments Amendment), 25/03/1983; 27/09/1994 (Scheduling Record). SCH2950.

Scheduled Monument Amendment notifications dated 1983, with the scheduled area increased to include area of the moat/rock cut ditch. Also a further amendment in 1994 increasing the scheduled area to include part of the field to the north of the monastic buildings. The 1994 listing details that surrounding the manor and its boundary wall is a rock-cut moat 6.4m wide and 2.7m deep that is partly infilled, and partly overlain by modern roads, but still survives to the east of the Hall and in the gardens of Park Cottages and Beytna. The moat's course is defined by a bank up to 1m high north west of Monastery Cottages.

<7> Department of Archaeology, University of Liverpool, 1994, Ince Manor, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire: Building Survey (DRAFT), R2316, Jennifer Lewis, p.5 (Client Report). SCH3937.

Lewis observes that, on topographical grounds the evidence for a moat is difficult to sustain and it is more likely that the Manor stands on a rocky outcrop the edges of which may have been quarried for building stone leaving sharpened profiles.