Lophams Hall, Carlton

Description

Powerful moat of possible castle. C15 manor house, later farmhouse, surrounded by an oval shaped moat. Of an irregular plan and altered in C16 & C17, the house has a rendered timber frame and tiled roofs. The north range represents the remains of C15 manor house. The south range was built circa 1582, probably replacing the open hall of C15 house, and a south west kitchen wing was added in C17. Moat now mainly filled in.

Moat at Lopham's Hall 0.5 mile SE of Carlton Church. This is the site of the manor house of Carlton Parva, successively known as Barbedor's and Lopham's. In its present form it consists of a roughly oval area, with long and short axes measuring 300 and 250 ft , surrounded by a wide and deep moat which is still wet round the greater part of its length. The site stands towards the foot of a hill-side sloping gently from the E, with the result that on the E side the moat, 30 ft wide, has a depth of 12ft, with water 12 ft wide at the bottom. This width is maintained all the way round, though the surface of the water is nearly at ground level on the W side where the level falls. There are two breaks in the circuit, both of them comparatively Mod. one on the W side carries the approach road to the C17 farmhouse in the middle of the moated area and the other is a considerable stretch on the SW, where the moat has been filled up. The great mass of earth which must have been removed in digging this moat is nowhere apparent and the inner verge carries no bank, nor has any attempt been made to level up the slope of the enclosed area. An unusual feature is around flat topped mound, deeply ditched round, standing just outside the moat to the S. The mound is 20 ft across the top and does not exceed the surrounding ground in height, so that it is not the product of digging the wide and deep ditch which surrounds it. This ditch touches the moat of the main site, but it is not clear whether it was originally joined to it. That there was originally some connection can hardly be in doubt, and at the present day water which collects in the mound moat flows out to the main one by a gap. The purpose of the mound is doubtful. It is not either sufficiently large or correctly placed for a barbican, and the original entrance must have been by a bridge across the moat on the W side. It seems to fulfil no possible defensive purpose and it may have been part of some garden scheme and carried a gazebo or summerhouse. The age of the main moat is unknown, but it may be surmised from its strength that its purpose was defensive and that it belongs to the earlier part of the Middle Ages. Its unusual oval form is not necessarily evidence of early date, as the nature of the ground and slope of the hill make a normal rectangular plan inconvenient, and the plan shows distinct signs of a more angular development on the lower ground to the W. It is probable that the moat was first dug round an already existing building. (Cambs HER report ? from VCH 1948)