An information board with a large photograph showing Wybunbury village taken in 2003, and information about the location of moated sites in the area.
Information given on the board is as follows;
" The Moated Sites.
The 1831 map of Wybunbury shows four moated sites, two by the brook, one near the Dove House Farm and one on Hall Mount, located behind the churchyard and clearly shown on the bottom left of the picture.
The moats were believed to date back to the time of the Norman Conquest. The name 'Wybunbury' indicates that in Saxon times it was a fortified place or burh. One site was possibly a safe house for use by the Bishop of Lichfield and a record by the bishop in 1621 says that the village has "one rectory but no manor house only a site where it once stood."
The moated site on Hall Bank indicates the site of a drawbridge, possibly giving access to the building which once stood there.
In the 15th century there was also a hospital to the church."
"This notice board was funded with donations received from Wybunbury Old Churchyard Society and Crewe & Nantwich 198 Round Table 2012."
Moated site 300m SE of St Chad's Church is a monument scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.List entry Number: 1012107.
It is described by Historic England as follows;
"The monument is in a good state of preservation unencumbered by modern building. It possesses considerable archaeological potential for the recovery of evidence of structural foundations of the building that originally occupied the island. Additionally the embanked access causeway is a rare and unusual feature associated with this class of monument. Of particular importance, however, is its close proximity to a second moated site which also survives well. Such close proximity is unusual for this class of monument.
The monument is situated 300m SE of St Chad's Church on low lying land prone to flooding. It consists of a slightly raised grass-covered island c.40m square that rises towards the S and SE. A dry moat 8-9m wide x 0.5m deep surrounds the island and is best preserved at the SW corner. An outer bank 6.5m max. width encircles the moat and has outlet channels cut through it at the N and NE corners and along the SE side. An unusual feature at this site is a long causeway 6m wide approaching from the NW and flanked by dry ditches and a low outer bank on the NE. To the immediate SW of this causeway, there are faint remains of a former fishpond. Access to the interior of the moated site would have been by a bridge or drawbridge. A second moated site of similar form lies 200m to the NE. Most moats were constructed between 1250-1350 and are generally seen as the prestigious residences of the Lords of the manor. The moat in such circumstances marked the high status of the occupier, but also served to deter casual raiders and wild animals. A telegraph pole and wooden cable support on the SW outer bank and an inspection chamber on the SE outer bank are excluded from the scheduling. The ground beneath these features, however, is included." Source: (
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"Two moated sites lie on the periphery of the village. One to the east (CSMR 183/3; SAM 13438) is named ‘Hall Bank’ on the 1846 tithe award and accordingly may be the site of the medieval manor house. The other (CSMR 183/2; SAM 13439), to the south-east of the village, is recorded as glebe land in 1846 and may have been the site of the medieval rectory." Source: (
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Hall Bank moated site, Wybunbury: (
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