LITTYWOOD

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DESCRIPTION

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Two concentric, circular moats surrounding a manor house built circa 1400 and extended in the late 16th and late 18th/early 19th centuries. A massive cruck truss survives at the westen end of the former open hall.

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(SJ 8893 1902) Moat (NR). (1)

A double moat encloses the manor-house of Littywood, the outer ditch being circular and circa 650 ft in diameter. (2)

The main earthwork is a massive circular flat-topped bank with a corresponding flat-bottomed ditch outside, enclosing an area circa 100m in diameter. There is an outer bank 10.0m wide and 1.8m high for a short distance on the SW. The ditch is still waterfilled on the E and was probably originally so all round. In the centre is a roughly circular, raised area from which a slight causeway runs SE to the outside of the earthwork. There would seem little doubt that this earthwork is a double circular homestead moat. (3)

An excavation trench across the inner moat in 1958 revealed that dumping of refuse here commenced about 1800. (4)

No change to previous information. Published 1:2500 survey revised. (5)

SJ 8892 1901. Littywood moated site, the only moated site in Staffordshire with two concentric, circular moats. It includes a central platform upon which stands Littywood House. Surrounding the platform is a dry inner moat up to 40m wide and 3m deep which is separated from the outer moat by a flat-topped bank up to 22m wide. The outer moat remains waterlogged on its eastern side but is dry on the west. Two connecting channels linking the moats have been cut through the bank on its south-west and western sides. Access to the house is by a causeway on the north-east side.

Littywood has been continuously occupied since the 12th century. Originally it was the manorial house of the Baron of Stafford prior to passing though the Caverswall, Willoughby and Greville families. In c.1502 the manor was leased to John Stapledon whose family later claimed they had been tenants since the 12th or 13th centuries. The house was originally two timber-framed buildings still largely preserved, converted into the present house which has a later brick shell.

Scheduled RSM No. 22435. (The scheduling does not include Littywood house and outbuildings). (6)

Two concentric, circular moats surrounding a manor house built circa 1400 and extended in the late 16th and late 18th centuries. There is a cruck truss at the west end of the timber framed former open hall. Listed Grade II. (7)

Listed as a strong house by Cathcart King. (8)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" 1967

( 2) edited by L Margaret Midgley 1958 A history of the county of Stafford: volume IV: Staffordshire Domesday and West Cuttlestone Hundred

The Victoria history of the counties of England VCH Staf 4 1958 74 plan (L M Midgley) Page(s)74

( 3) Field Investigators Comments

F1 VJB 28-JAN-57

( 4) Transactions of the Old Stafford Society

T Old Staf Soc 1956-9 40-43 (J H Simpson) Page(s)40-3

( 5) Field Investigators Comments

F2 ASP 24-JAN-74

( 6) Scheduled Monument Notification

English Heritage Scheduling Amendment 17/11/92

(7) List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest

District of Stafford, 10-JAN-1972

(8) by David J Cathcart King 1983 Castellarium anglicanum : an index and bibliography of the castles in England, Wales and the islands. Volume I : Anglesey - Montgomery

Page(s)453

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