Washingley

91. WASHINGLEY (B.b.).

(O.S. 6 in. IX N.W.)

Washingley is a parish 7 m. S.W. of Peterborough.

Secular

(1). Homestead Moat in Caldecote Wood, on the S. edge of the parish.

(2). Washingley Hall, house and earthworks, stands on the E. side of the parish. The House is of two storeys; the walls are of brick with stone dressings. It was built in the 17th century, but was enlarged and entirely remodelled late in the 18th century, so that there is now little evidence of antiquity. In the roof is some original walling containing a window with moulded stone jambs and mullion; there are also portions of a modelled plaster frieze with conventional floral-ornament. A recent subsidence in the garden disclosed a small portion of a 17th-century vaulted cellar of brick.

The Earthworks consist of a moat, fish-stews, village-settlement and various mounds and pools. The moat forms an irregular enclosure S.E. of the house and is now dry. The stews lie 450 yards S.S.E. of the house and consist of three rectangular basins surrounded on three sides by an outer basin. In the S.W. angle of the moat is a mound of oblong form and some 10½ ft. high. About 120 yards E. of the moat are two small mounds about 13 ft. in diameter and 1½ ft. high. N.E. of the moat are two Sarsen stones and a roughly rectangular pond. The Otter Pond, 650 yards W. of the house, consists of a roughly circular mound, 9 ft. high, surrounded by a wet ditch 18 ft. wide. N.E. from the pond runs a bank terminating close to a mound 30 ft. in diameter and 2½ ft. high, called Ward Mound. The ground N.W. of the house is broken by a number of ponds, ditches and banks indicating a former settlement. The ditch on the N. of the site has the abutments of a former bridge.

Condition—Of house, good; of earthworks, mostly poor.