Wick Court, Arlingham

Description

Wick Court, a moated C17 house, later a farmhouse, stands on a site which has evidence of habitation dating from possibly C12. The earliest excavated building on the site was a a square stone tower base, possibly a watch tower, with a small timbered hall house and separate kitchen block (pottery dating to C12 was found during excavations outside the kitchen door). In C13 a more substantial stone built hall was erected and it is also from this period that the moat probably dates. The house was altered in the C15 and C16 with wings added, floors inserted and walls removed. Around 1600 the substantial rebuilding took place when a new front block was added, the surviving rear portion being of early C16 date. The rear section is of stone with a roughcast face, originally possibly timber framed, with the remainder of the house of brick faced stone rubble. There is a plain tile roof to the rear with the later front block stone slated. The house in now occupied by the charity Farms for City Children. (PastScape)
SO 7359 1045 (centred on longest length) Four interrupted lengths of a Medieval and Post Medieval moat ditch and part of an exterior earthwork bank have been mapped from aerial photographs taken in 1946 and were still visible in 1970. Fragments of the moat are visible on all four sides, the longest continuous length of ditch being the eastern (71 metres) and half of the southern (39 metres) sides, with a width between 4 metres and 5.5 metres. On the outward facing eastern and southern side of the moat, part of an earthwork bank has been mapped, measuring between 7 and 10 metres wide. The western side of the moat has been mapped as two lengths of ditch of lengths of 50 metres and 22 metres and the northern length being 40 metres long. This may not represent the full extent of surviving moat ditch as it was not possible to map the whole length of the moat from aerial photographs due to trees planted along its length. (PastScape)

Comments

Excavation following evaluation revealed a probable early 12th century ditch, as well as phases of the manor house including a timber-framed hall, stone camera block and timber kitchen of 12th-13th century date. (NMR Excavation Index 1075252)
This excavation of a relatively rare C12 camera block appears to have been published in Post-medieval Archaeology. The Norman history and archaeology of this house seem to be missed by the usual medieval building authorities.