Monument record BRR 003 - Barrow Hall (site of)

Barrow Hall - site of.
1911: `Has extensive remains of strong entrenchments. There is one perfect, large, square moat, with the W side extended northwards, which is evidently part of the inclosure of another area. These moats have been strengthened by inner & outer banks; that within the square moat is a great rampart 20ft broad, rising 5ft from the interior with an escarpment of 16ft to the water. The bank on the outside of the moat is preserved only at the SW corner and the S side; this is of the same height, but of less width, than the inner one without the N side another piece is left; but the greater part was destroyed forty years ago. On the W side of the extension the bank is 6ft high. When in a complete state this must have been one of the strongest homestead defences in the country' (S7).
1969: A large rectangular moated site, having internal measurements 300 feet NS by 255 feet EW, an entrance on the W side, a water-filled arm of the moat leading N from the NW corner to a further, partly destroyed moated site to the N. The banks of the moat are water-filled, up to 20 feet deep and between 40 feet and 50 feet across from lip to lip. The moat is outlined bya belt of mature trees, inside it is cultivated. Large quantities of brick, tiles, flints etc were visible in the stubble. (The field to the W - not scheduled - also contains much building debris)(S1).
1981: Interior of moat under arable. Moat almost dry to SW. Quantity of dead wood and weed choking moat, especially to SE corner & NE arm. Brick and flint noted in stubble (S1).
1985: C13 iron key found 1967 and bronze decorated belt end fragment, ?C15 (R1).
1985: Mr J Lydle of Johnson Road recalls, " I can remember as a boy going across to this site (Barrow Hall), in the same field there was a big mound of earth that we used to run up and down. This was a barrow..." (?)(S8).
1991: Site only visible from air. Field grazed by sheep, moat clear and stocked with fish (S3).
The moated site is thought to be the manor of Barrow, mentioned in the 12th and 13th centuries as belognging to the Passelewe family. By 1540 the manor had been acquired by Sir Clement Heigham. He is recorded as building a manor house at Barrow in the 1550s, and a 1779 map, copying one of drawn up in 1597, depicts a manor house on the moated site. The map depicts Barrow Hall as an L-shaped group of buildings consisting of a double-storeyed main range running N to S and a single storey range E to W (S1)(S4)(S5)(copy of map in parish file). House built by Sir Clement Heigham in mid C16, demolished in the early C18 (S6).
May 2001: Scheduled area revised (S1).
Earthwork viasible on Lidar image. See associated files.