The mystery of the moat at Llancaiach Fawr manor house is one that had our archaeologists scratching their heads. When a new visitor car park was constructed at the site of this 14th century grade 1 listed manor house the work uncovered a moat. Good news, and to be expected at a medieval manor site. There was a slight problem with the discovery however... the moat ran in the wrong direction, away from the standing manor into a field to the west. So what could the feature be, a roman fort, a royal court, a chapel... a cattle enclosure?
Time Team had been invited by Diane Walker, director of Llancaiach Fawr manor in South Wales to come up with some answers - in particular Diane hoped the team would be able to find evidence of an earlier manor house on the site. So the team got to work. Without waiting for the geophys team. Our first trench went in over the oat feature first planned by the Royal Commission in the 1970s. An earlier small dig in this area had discovered what could be stone walls. Phil was convinced we needed to think big, so our trench was much bigger.
The existing Llancaiach Fawr Manor house was built sometime in the early 16th century by the wealthy and powerful Pritchard family who claimed ancestry back to the 12th century. With the documents regarding the manor house itself only dating to the 16th century the length of time the family had lived at the site remained unclear. The team hoped that the moat would lead us to an earlier manor allowing the history of the site to be pushed back in time.
As the moat trench progressed it began to reveal what appeared to be lines of stonework but all in pretty bad condition. Perhaps geophys could help. John and his team got cracking over a wide area around the moat trench. Unfortunately the results prove less than conclusive. In fact there was almost nothing on them, including any evidence of the moat continuing. Our site director Ben Robinson was puzzled but didn't think the geophys was quite as discouraging as it first appeared. One feature stood out - a large ditch like feature running around the field. Ben was convinced this could be a boundary ditch - perhaps to an earlier settlement.
With no sign of an earlier manor house in the moat field the team turned their attention to the rest of the landscape around the standing building. Stewart had been examining old maps of the area and discovered what appeared to be the evidence of an earlier settlement to the south of the manor house. Could this be the site of our elusive manor. Geophys got straight to work and revealed... almost nothing at all. So, no house to the south then.
Back in the moat field the new trenches investigating the boundary ditch come up trumps - but not quite with what we expected. Phil was a very happy man when Bronze Age pottery began appearing. Settlement activity this old is rare in Wales and suggested that humans had lived at the site for thousands of years. Not quite what we had come to Llancaiach Fawr to find, but a great discovery nonetheless.
A Prehistoric enclosure was all very interesting but wasn't getting us any closer to an earlier manor site. Ben had a theory - he thought the earlier manor may be right next to the existing one, underneath its beautifully manicured ornamental gardens. With a nervous landowner looking on Raksha began to dig. Following the earth shattering discovery of a piece of plastic at the bottom of the trench we soon abandoned Bens new theory.
By now it was Stewarts turn again. Map evidence showed a trackway to the west of the site that could lead to a gatehouse and perhaps an early defensive wall, well, according to Stewart anyway. So a trench went in to test the theory and discovered... a sewage pipe.
As day three began Ben assembled the troops to consider our options. There was just one place left to look - the north of the manor. Could we finally be about to discover the lost manor house of Llancaiach Fawr? In short, no... At the end of our three days in Wales we hadn't found any evidence of medieval building on the site at all.
But it wasn't all bad news. Phil had been quietly working away in the moat field and had uncovered lots of evidence for prehistoric activity. It seemed likely that these ditches and banks as well as other prehistoric features which may have been visible in the 16th century could have been the very reason that the Pritchard family chose to build their grand manor house at the site - an association with legendary heroes of the ancient past could have been just what the family needed to legitimize their claim to this beautiful part of South Wales.
