Wattisham Hall (The Gatehouse Record)

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

OS Map Grid Reference: TM01045129
Latitude 52.12349° Longitude 0.93549°

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

There are earthwork remains.

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

Description

VCH record of a 'moated enclosure with stronger defensive works (Class G)'. Wattisham Hall, 5 miles south-west from Needham Market, has a double moat. A broad oval fosse 44 ft. wide surrounds an area 9 ft. above the water, upon which stands the manor house. This is evidently an ancient fortified site long antedating the mediaeval works. A manorial moat was at some later period cut around a large irregular quadrangular area, inclosing the more ancient oval site. This averages 1 2 ft. wide, with banks 3 ft. high, and taking an inward curve on the south-east it enters the fosse of the first work; it is probable that at the time the moat was constructed the oval fosse was converted into a moat by the inlet of water. The church and churchyard are situated within the north-west corner of the manorial moat. Vestiges of banks without the western side may have inclosed an orchard, and by the north side of this embankment are the remains of a fish-pond. (VCH)

An oval waterfilled homestead moat, measuring overall c90.0m NE-SW by c80.0m transversely, enclosing Wattisham Hall (a farmhouse, modern in external appearance and not outstanding). The moat is 12.0m wide. The alleged outer moat is a series of drainage ditches and ponds. (PastScape–ref. Field Investigators Comments-F1 NKB 10-MAR-72)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1284430
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 386906.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) WAM 001.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Wattisham Hall Holiday Cottages
Books
- Wall, 1911, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Suffolk Vol. 1 p. 622 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.

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

Data >	PastScape	County HER		Listing	I. O. E.
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