More information : (TF94182324) Manor House (NR) (Site of) (TF94182321) Well (NR) (1) Small circular bank and ditch with one of greater size and of horse-shoe shape adjoining it, found in April 1855, in clearing Great Wood, Horningtoft. Foundations of regular building of rubble-work, and a well in very perfect state lay within the earthworks which covered an area of about one acre. Traditionally the site of "a great castle". (2) Old road 15 ft wide traced for quarter of a mile, past the earthworks and beside the road for 70 yards going off in an easterly direction towards N Elmham. Excavated 1852 (?32). Visited by R R Clarke 14 4 1933. (3,4) Medieval manor house site. Raised ring 50' diam 7 1/2' high looks like a small motte; traces of rubble masonry. Double-ringed enclosure, old road and other features visible. (5) The present Manor House (TF 94422378) is 19th century, post 1826 and its predecessor was in the village. The large wood on the east side of the parish including the Medieval manor site covers almost exactly the area of the demense land. Around the edge was a large bank and ditch. Carthew's plan shews (the earthwork of) a circular building within a roughly circular moat. (6) A manorial site comprising a sub-circular dry moat, a boundary bank and ditch, and minor contemporary fields/enclosures. The moat has been eaten into by quarrying on the north, and part of the southern side seems to have been eradicated by the plough. Extensive disturbance within indicates grassed-over building foundations which seem to have had a normal rectangular layout. A small depression marks the well, (the fate of the silver scales noted on the OS 25" as found in it in 1830 is not apparently recorded). Resurveyed at 1:2500 (7)
Further information. The author considers the site to be a circular moat (8).
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