Misson moat (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Misson.
In the historic county of Nottinghamshire.
Modern Authority of Nottinghamshire.
1974 county of Nottinghamshire.
Medieval County of Nottinghamshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SK69299497
Latitude 53.44701° Longitude -0.95812°

Misson moat has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

The moated site at Misson survives reasonably well. Remains of the buildings which formerly existed will survive on the island. The moat and fish pond retain conditions suitable for the preservation of organic remains.
This monument, situated east of Misson, includes a trapezoidal moated site and a single filled-in fishpond. It includes a central platform surrounded by a 10m wide moat which varies between 1m and 2m deep. The platform is up to 1m higher than the surrounding land. Overall, the site measures 43m along the south-east side, 52m along the south-west side, 38m along the north-east side and 25m along the north-west side. However, it has been disturbed on the north-west side by a modern dyke and field boundary and would originally have extended further. Set 3m south of the south-east arm of the moat, and offset from its east corner by 35m, is a filled-in rectangular fishpond measuring 30m from south-west to north-east by 7m from south-east to north-west. (Scheduling Report)

"Misson. Remains of earthworks on the east side of the village" (VCH).
Gravel Pit (Annotated Record Map Corr 6" (R. J. Fox March 1963) ).
Not a gravel pit and no evidence of such in the immediate vicinity. This is a strong small defensive homestead moat situated at SK 69309498; the island shows much disturbance including a rectangular pit 0.7m. deep probably the result of robbery, no foundations are evident. The owners of the property have no knowledge of the history of the site. Adjacent, the the south of the moat, the outline of a former fishpond can be traced; now under pasture (F1 FDC 21-FEB-74). (PastScape)

Comments

Recorded under 'Unclassified Earthworks' in the VCH. Appears to be a small but strong house, although given the limited available history for the parish, possibly the residence of a steward, rather than a lordly house (the Domesday record 5 manors - 2 royal demense, 1 held by the priest, 2 by minor landholders). The village and this moat lie in the flood plain of the River Idle. This was an area of important and valuable hay meadow but also subject to flooding (although the village is on a slight rise. The moat may be more than usually silted up and may well have been built for flood defence.

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1008629, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 23217
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 320891.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) M5052.

Books
- Sneyd, Steve, 1995, The Devil's Logbook Castles and Fortified Sites around South Yorkshire (Hilltop Press) p. 14
  Stevenson, W., 1906, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Nottinghamshire Vol. 1 p. 313 online copy

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
Help is acknowledged.

Data >	PastScape	County HER	Scheduling
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	V. O. B.	Geology	LiDAR	Open Domesday
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio