Scheduled Ancient Monument: MOATED SITE AT GREAT WILSEY FARM (33287)

The monument includes a medieval moated site at Great Wilsey Farm lying approximately 370m north of a tributary of the River Stour. The moat is thought to represent the site of Wilsey Hall Manor which was owned by Gilbert de Clare in the first half of the 12th century. In the 16th century the manor was held by amongst others, Robert Cornewall, Sir Giles Alington, Henry Turner and family and John Skinner, who in 1601 sold it to William Smythe. It is thought that a house on the island was replaced in the 17th century by a house immediately to the east of the moated site and this in turn was demolished in the 1960s and replaced by the present Great Wilsey Farmhouse. The moated site includes a roughly rectangular island measuring up to 46m north east-south west by 38m north west-south east which is raised up to 1m above the surrounding ground surface. The island is enclosed by a water-filled moat which measures up to 14m wide and is more than 1.5m deep. The island is approached by a modern footbridge across the south east arm of the moat. A number of the features are excluded from the scheduling, these are: telephone and electricity poles, the made-up surface of the road, the bridge across the south east arm of the moat and a modern brick feature cut into the outer edge of the moat's southern corner. The ground beneath all these features is, however, included.