Monument record SKT 016 - Abbot's Hall (PMed)

Straight sided broad canal 102m long and tapering from 40m wide at the W end to 28m wide at the E. A small rectangular island 22m x 15m at the W end is connected to the mainland by a wooden bridge and bears a small early C18 brick summerhouse, which faces down the length of the canal. The canal is surrounded on all sides by a embanked terrace 4-6m wide, flanked by trees. In the middle of the N terrace is a ramp, again flanked by trees, that gives access to a wide flat and slightly sunken area between the house and the canal which is now a lawn, but was once probably a formal garden. 8m to the W of the canal and more or less on the same axis (though slightly offset to the S) is a long rectangular moated area, 55m long x 25m wide, with straight sided ditches 4-5m wide (silted up in 1991). Access is provided by a causeway in the middle of the W end. In 1991 this was overgrown with trees, with little evidence of its original function. A modern pipe links the moat with linear pond on the same axis 30m to the W, in the grounds of the Rural Life Museum.
13m to the E of the canal is an irregular rounded pond which has been much disfigured by recent tree falls.
The canal occupies an elevated position with views northwards of the house and southwards of Combs church etc., across the valley.
Abbot's Hall itself is an early C18 brick building (apparently there is a date 1709 somewhere in the house). The summerhouse and the associated canal are likely to be contemporary (S1). For details of the house see (S2).