Blog – Slipton Lodge: Money Holes.

• Lowick, Northamptonshire.
• OSGB – SP 95009 81236.
• Scheduled monument.
• Monument Number 1011037.

Medieval Moated site. Game Keepers Lodge.

The site is of a trapezoid shape with the eastern ditch measuring 85m in length, the western ditch measuring 47m in length and the north-south ditch measuring 120m in length. The ditches measure approximately 2.5m in depth and 7m wide. There are outer banks on two of the sides. The entrance was by a causeway across the moat.

Believed to have been a Game Keepers Lodge on the edge of the Deer Park. There are archaeological remains of buildings internally. Game Keepers Lodge’s were located at the entrance to parks and they acted as security to protect the game within.

It was once thought to have originally been the site of an early Nunnery, but there is no documentary evidence for this.

There are very few written sources on this site and as such a true timeline cannot be written, what we do know is,

18^th C                A farmhouse stood on the site.

18^th-19^th C          Abandoned.

1951                 Scheduled.

Moated sites are an important part of our country’s history. Most of the moated sites in England date to between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and at the last count there were approximately 5,400! Within Northamptonshire there are around 49 sites known to date.

Moats come in all sizes and shapes, and need not encircle the whole site. It may form only one or two sides and still be categorized as a moated site. The number of islands varies too.

On average ditches associated with the moats measure approximately 3-6 meters wide, and where required these would have been crossed to give access via a drawbridge, bridge, or a causeway.

Buildings associated with moats vary in size and shape as do the associated features. These features included, but are not limited to, fishponds, houses, barns, and other buildings for domestic use.

When archaeologists are recording these sites some of the main aspects they are looking at include, plan, shape, features, associated enclosures, the entrances, ditches, banks, what remains and what may have been lost – research is also undertaken through old maps, and archival information relating to the sites past.

Many moats and moated sites have been destroyed due to a lack of understanding and the significance they hold as part of the history of our country. Many have been ploughed out, destroyed, filled in or had other building erected on the old foundations. It is such a shame as so much information has been lost to us.

References & Bibliography.

Aberg. F. A. (ed.). 1978. CBA Research Report: No. 17. Medieval Moated Sites. Available at https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/cba_rr/rr17.cfm.

British History Online. 1975. “Sectional Preface.” An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Northamptonshire, Volume 1, Archaeological Sites in North-East Northamptonshire. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1975. xxiii-xlv. British History Online. Web. 1 March 2021. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/northants/vol1/xxiii-xlv.

British History Online. 1975. ‘Lowick’, in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Northamptonshire, Volume 1, Archaeological Sites in North-East Northamptonshire (London, 1975), pp. 61-63. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/northants/vol1/pp61-63 [accessed 1 March 2021].

Historic England. 2021. Slipton Lodge Moated Site. Available at https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1011037.

Kettering Grammar School Local History and Historical Society. 1974. Some Moated Sites in Northamptonshire. Council For British Archaeology Newsletter, No.4 1974, pp. 25-26.

Leland. J. 1769. The Itinerary of John Leland the Antiquary. Thomas Hearne.

Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England). 1975. An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Northampton: Archaeological sites in north-west Northamptonshire. H.M. Stationery Office.

Wilson. D. R. 1985. Moated Sites. Shire Publications.