Leire moat (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Leire.
In the historic county of Leicestershire.
Modern Authority of Leicestershire.
1974 county of Leicestershire.
Medieval County of Leicestershire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SP52739018
Latitude 52.50742° Longitude -1.22400°

Leire moat has been described as a Fortified Manor House although is doubtful that it was such.

There are earthwork remains.

Description

VCH records this site as a 'moated inclosure with stronger defensive works.'

North-east of the church is the greater part of a moat of parallelogram plan. The south-west has a bank and external moat; on the north-east and south-east the moat is inside, 4ft. deep, with a wide outer vallum 6 ft. in height. From the latter side two branches of the moat turn inwards to a distance of nearly 100ft. (VCH)

A series of broad, shallow, dry ditches, apparently constructed to take water from a spring, still extant at SP 52799012, to a moat, centred at SP 52709020. The southern arm of the moat has been filled in and, though the formerly enclosed area is raised, no traces of a building were seen. From the northwest corner of the moat, the water apparently drained into a large, dug depression. The easternmost ditch has been extensively mutilated by soil-dumping in recent months. The earthworks fall in an old pasture used as a a large chicken range. No local knowledge was found relating to the site. (PastScape–ref.- Field Investigators Comments-F1 WCW 27-JUL-60)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 340697.
Further information may be available from the holder of the county Historic Environment Record.

Books
- Wall, C., 1907, 'Ancient Earthworks' in Page, Wm, (ed), VCH Leicestershire Vol. 1 p. 269 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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