Scheduled Ancient Monument: MOATED SITE AT ELM HALL (21308)

The monument includes a moated site located south east of Dennington Village on level ground above the valley of the River Alde, which lies 750m to the north. The moat encloses three sides of a sub-rectangular island with maximum dimensions of 39m east - west by 31m north - south, and is between 5m and 9m wide and between 2.5m and 3m deep. It is water-filled, fed by surface drainage, with a broad outlet at the south eastern angle which takes the overflow into a field ditch. The fourth arm of the moat, which formerly bounded the western side of the island, was crossed by a central causeway and, south of the causeway was enlarged to 14m in width, with a rectangular horse pond on the west side and a short southward projection approximately 6m wide at the south western angle. It was filled-in in 1948 but survives as a buried feature. North of the site of the causeway, the ground is noticeably damp, and the angle between the outer edge of the former western end of the south arm of the moat and the southward projection is marked by a terrace between 0.5m and 1m high. The island is now unoccupied; the original Elm Hall, which stood in the middle of the southern side, was burnt down and the ruins subsequently demolished at some time prior to World War II. Farm buildings standing on the south western part of the site are excluded from the scheduling, as are clothes-line posts, service poles, fences and gates, but the ground beneath these buildings and features is included.