Monument record 1543/1/2 - Ridge Hall Moated Site and Annexe

<1> Wilson D et al, 1973-1986, Moated Sites Research Group Records (Paper Archive). SCH2205.

Moat at Ridge Hall. Single rectangular moat, now dry, with associated channels. Only three sides remain and the entrance is across the filled in arm.

<2> Various, Various, Oral communication to the HER, Wilson D, 1987 (Oral Communication). SCH2330.

The only Cheshire moat located on a hillside and the highest in the County. Parcels of ridge and furrow are detectable to the west.

<3> English Heritage, Various, Schedule Entry (Scheduled Ancient Monuments Amendment), 13490 (Scheduling Record). SCH2950.

The monument is Ridge Hall moated site and annexe. It is located on a plateau at a height of 230m above sea level. The monument includes an island measuring c.45m x 36m upon which stands Ridge Hall. The island is surrounded on all sides except the northwest by a moat averaging 7m wide x 1.3m deep. This moat is waterlogged in its northeast arm and the northern end of its southeast arm but is elsewhere dry. A short length of the southwest arm has been infilled. An outer bank some 8.5m wide x 0.2m high flanks the southwest arm. A causeway gives access across the southeast arm into a grassy annexe measuring some 50m x 60m that is bordered on three sides by a dry ditch up to 4m wide x 0.4m deep. An outer bank c.6m wide x 0.4m high flanks this ditch. The original house was largely destroyed during the Civil War and replaced by the present smaller building that has seventeenth, nineteenth and twentieth century additions.

<4> Ormerod, G., 1882, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, vol.III p.763-5 (Book). SCH1389.

<5> Dodgson J McN, 1970-2, 1981, The Place-Names of Cheshire, vol.I, p.151 (Book). SCH3228.

The earliest documentary reference to Ridge (Rugge) dates from 1353.