Monument record SBK 007 - The Rookery; formerly Battlesea Hall (PMed)

Ornamental canal 300m long by 17m wide and relatively shallow. Runs south-westward from the front of the house, its long axis at a slightly less than right angle to the frontage. At the southern end of the canal there is an island 38 m. long x 7 m. wide, shown on the old 1:2500 map as tree and bush covered, trees and bushes still shown on 1986 aerial photograph. Channels lead of at right angles to the east side of the canal, linking up with another linear feature which is probably the ditch marking the west side of the former Battlesea Green (see SBK 015). These various ditches and channels define three enclosures which increase in size from N to S. The middle enclosure is shown as an orchard on the 1:2500 map, now a market garden. The large S enclosure contained a pond which has now been considerably enlarged. These enclosures have been taken to be components of a large medieval moat (see Med). Fragments of an earlier moat may be included in the system at the N end, but much of it is a fortuitous combination of an early 18th century canal and a medieval green ditch. This property belonged to a Roman Catholic family called Fox in the 17th and 18th centuries. The likely builder of the canal is Joseph Fox, Esq. who succeeded his father Simon in 1697 and died in 1748. On the death of his son Joseph in 1778, the property seems to have been sold to the Henniker- Majors of Thornham Magna (S1)(S2)(S3).
August 1994: Canal cleaned out except for the extreme SE end around the island. Island is covered with trees and bushes. Rebuilt brick retaining wall at NW end near the house (S4).