Littywood Moat (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Littywood House; Litty Wood

In the civil parish of Bradley.
In the historic county of Staffordshire.
Modern Authority of Staffordshire.
1974 county of Staffordshire.
Medieval County of Staffordshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SJ88921901
Latitude 52.76864° Longitude -2.16564°

Littywood Moat has been described as a probable Timber Castle, and also as a certain Fortified Manor House.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.
This is a Grade 2 listed building protected by law*.

Description

Littywood moated site, the only moated site in Staffordshire with two concentric, circular moats. It includes a central platform upon which stands Littywood House. Surrounding the platform is a dry inner moat up to 40m wide and 3m deep which is separated from the outer moat by a flat-topped bank up to 22m wide. The outer moat remains waterlogged on its eastern side but is dry on the west. Two connecting channels linking the moats have been cut through the bank on its western side. An outer bank up to 13m wide flanks the outer moat on its south-west and western sides. Access to the house is by a causeway on the north-east side. Littywood was the manorial house of the Baron of Stafford prior to passing through the Caverswall, Willoughby and Greville families. In c.1502 the manor was leased to John Stapledon whose family later claimed they had been tenants since the 12th or 13th centuries. The house was originally two timber-framed buildings still largely preserved, converted into the present house which has a later brick shell. (Scheduling Report)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1017856, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 22435
National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1243064
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 75294.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 00056.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- CastleUK.net
  Littywood Manor
Books
- Salter, Mike, 1997, Castles and Moated Mansions of Staffordshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 33
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 229
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 453
  Pevsner, N., 1974, Buildings of England: Staffordshire (London, Penguin) p. 76
  Midgley, L.M. 1958, in Midgley, L.M. (ed), VCH Staffordshire Vol. 4 p. 74 (plan of hall)(air photo in frontispiece)
  Lynam, Charles, 1908, 'Ancient Earthworks' in Page, Wm. (ed), VCH Staffordshire Vol. 1 p. 358-9 (plan - homestead moat) online copy
Periodical Articles
- Simpson, J.H., 1956-9, Transactions of the Old Stafford Society p. 40-43

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.

*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

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