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Summary - not yet available

Monument Types

• MOAT? (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1500 AD)

Protected Status

• Scheduled Ancient Monument 11523: MOATED ENCLOSURES, WELL WOOD AND CHAPEL WOOD, WATTON-AT-STONE

Full description

A sub-circular enclosure with a well-defined bank and ditch on the E, the ditch being the more outstanding feature. An entrance is visible on the SE side<1>. Banks 2-2.5m high. Remains of an excavation trench across NE corner are visible <2>.
'A scatter of early medieval pottery appears on the surface, and a 12C Caen-stone mortar was found' within the enclosure <3>. This is 'a Caen stone mortar, and probably dates from the 13th century. (It) consists of a hemispherical bowl on a truncated pyramidal base. Usually there are a pair of diametrically opposed looped handles. What is unusual about this specimen is that the handles were in the form of little seated men' <4>. It was found by the landowner. Fieldwalking has also produced 13th-15th century pottery <4>.
The earthwork is Scheduled as a moat. It is certainly enclosed by a large ditch, but this is cut into chalk, and the site slopes steeply. It seems unlikely that it ever contained water' <4>.
See also [1987], adjacent to the south.

OS Records (Index). SHT8223.

<1> Page, W (ed.), 1908, VCH Hertfordshire vol.2 (Bibliographic reference). SHT9314.

<2> Ancient Monuments Field Report (Unpublished document). SHT8300.

<3> Rook, Tony, 2004, Archaeological assessment, evaluation and watching brief: All Saints' churchyard, Datchworth, RNO 1583 (Report). SHT10518.

<4> Anon, 1970, Chapel Wood, Well Wood; Herts Archaeol Review 1 (spring 1970), 20 (Article in serial). SHT4547.

Sources and further reading

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