BRANSTON: BRANSTON LODGE

TF 063683

This moated enclosure is situated close to the Car Dyke on Branston Moor and is some four kilometres to the east of the present village of Branston, just above the fen edge (Fig 30). It is of a very regular shape, with a central platform of about 1500 square metres (Fig 31). The ditch varies from seven to twelve metres in width and is always full of water. There is a slight bank surviving on the south-west side of the earthwork and the old series 6" to one mile Ordnance Survey map shows a similar bank on the south-east side. It remains as a wildlife conservation area, with no indication of any former access to the central area.

The site has not been positively identified, but is almost certainly related to the medieval improvement of the waste, and may be the grange that Kirkstead Abbey built in the parish in the twelfth century (1). However, the monastery had various sheepfolds and sheep-shearing sheds in Branston, and, short of archaeological investigation, a non-habitative site cannot therefore be excluded (2).

1. Religious Houses ii, 114.

2. Kirkstead Cartulary f. 63, no cxxvii. I am grateful to Dr Trevor Foulds for this reference.