Barrow Hall (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Barrow.
In the historic county of Suffolk.
Modern Authority of Suffolk.
1974 county of Suffolk.
Medieval County of Suffolk.

OS Map Grid Reference: TL76296401
Latitude 52.24603° Longitude 0.58077°

Barrow Hall has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

VCH record of a 'moated enclosure with stronger defensive works (Class G)' Barrow Hall, north of the village, 6 miles west from Bury St. Edmunds, has extensive remains of strong entrenchments. There is one perfect, large, square moat, with the western side extended northwards, which is evidently part of the enclosure of another area. These moats have been strengthened by inner and outer banks ; that within the square moat is a great rampart 20 ft. broad, rising 5 ft. from the interior with an escarpment of 16 ft. to the water. The bank on the outside of the moat is preserved only at the south-west corner and the southern side ; this is of the same height, but of less width, than the inner one. Without the northern side another piece is left; but the greater part was destroyed forty years ago. On the western side of the extension the bank is 6 ft. high. When in a complete state this must have been one of the strongest homestead defences in the county. (VCH)

Barrow Hall was a large brick building, within a moat. It was pulled down about 1730. Barrow Hall has been completely levelled; its site has been ploughed and is at present under crop. The old Hall stood within a strongly defended, nearly square water-filled homestead moat, situated on flat ground. The moated island measures up to 96 metres by 90 metres and is surrounded by a waterfilled ditch averaging 21 metres in width and 4 metres in depth. An inner bank, along the west and south sides may originally have extended around all but the north-western corner of the island. It may have acted as a raised walkway surrounding a formal garden. Outer banks survive along the north, east, south and part of the west sides. Two ponds extending northwards from the western moat arm may represent either medieval fishponds or ornamental garden features asociated with an early post-medieval formal garden north of the moat. Apparently spring fed, the moat drained at the north west through the fishponds. Access to the island, which is not raised, is by an original causeway in the west arm. (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1019805, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 33309
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 379728.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) BRR 003.

Books
- Wall, 1911, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Suffolk Vol. 1 p. 620 online copy
  Copinger, W.A., 1911, Manors of Suffolk Vol. 7 p. 3- online copy

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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.

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