Scheduled Ancient Monument: MOATED SITE AT DOVEDEN HALL (33306)

The monument includes a medieval moated site at Doveden Hall, 1.35km from Whepstead parish church. The moat island is roughly square, measuring up to 46m across, and is surrounded by a waterfilled moat measuring an average 10m in width and up to 2m deep. A causeway across the west arm of the moat is believed to represent the original access to the island, whilst a brick bridge which crosses the south arm of the moat is believed to be later in date. A stable block, which abuts the outer edge of the western arm of the moat to the south of the causeway, is not included in the scheduling. The centre of the island is occupied by Doveden Hall, a Listed Building Grade II of 15th century date. The hall takes the form of a three cell open hall house, with a projecting cross wing at the south end which was extended in the 16th century. The moated site is thought to represent the manor of Doveton Hall, also known as Dorrington Hall and Duffin Hall which was given, with associated lands, to the Abbey of St Edmunds in 1292. In 1545, after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the manor was granted by the Crown to Sir George Somerset of Badmondisfield. It was later sold to Thomas Bacon, and in 1550 it passed to Roger Frost and continued in the Frost family until 1688. Doveden Hall, all outhouses and sheds, walls and fences, the bridge across the southern arm of the moat, and the swimming pool, together with all modern man- made surfaces, are excluded from the scheduling; although the ground beneath all these features is included.