Scheduled Ancient Monument: MOATED SITE AT FOLLY FARM (21319)

The monument includes a moated site located 340m north-west of St Mary's Church, in an elevated position above a north-facing slope. The moat ditch, which ranges in width from 8m to 13m, encloses a sub-rectangular central platform with maximum internal dimensions of 65m north-west/south-east by 55m north-east/south-west, and the site has overall maximum dimensions of 90m by 83m. The southern, eastern and northern arms of the moat, and part of the western arm around the north-western corner, remain open and contain waterlogged deposits, with open water during much of the year. At the northwestern corner is an outlet, approximately 5m wide and 1m in depth, which carries the overflow to a field ditch. The southern part of the western arm, including the south-western corner, survives as a buried feature, having been filled in with rubble from Folly Farm House, which was demolished with explosives in the 1950s. Maps of the site made before the demolition show a causeway across the western arm, to the north of the infilled section. The surface of the eastern half of the central platform is raised up to 1.8m above the prevailing ground level and the house stood near the centre of this raised area. According to an early 18th-century description this house, which was known at that time as Monewden Folly, was built on the ruins of an earlier building known as Monewden Lodge. The moated site has been identified as a park-keeper's lodge set in a medieval deer park. A barn which stood in the south-western corner of the central platform was blown down in the gale of October 1987. An associated concrete yard and access road which remain are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath these features is included.