Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/701

 ANCIENT EARTHWORKS Long Melford (Ixxii, 3).— Melford Hall, 3 miles north from Sudbury, occupies the site of a former residence of the abbots of Bury within a very large quadrangular moat ; the latter is imperfect, but on the northern side, within the moat, is an earthen bank of considerable width. Mettingham (viii, 16). — Mettingham Castle and College, south-east of Anne's Hill, 1 1 miles south-east from Bungay, were protected by a series of moats covering nearly six acres. The smallest and widest moat appears also to be the oldest, and probably surrounded the earliest castle, but in the 14th century the castle occupied a site to the north. These ruins are sur- rounded by a moat of which the northern trench of the smaller forms a part. In 1394 a college of secular canons was moved from Norton Sub- Mettingham Castle course and established on the site within the small moat mentioned above. Another quadrangular court to the south, containing the earliest moat in the north-east corner, appears to be of still later date ; this is from 1 2 ft. to 1 5 ft. wide, the banks rising 6 ft. above the water. On the east side, above the inner side of the moat, is a defensive bank 2 ft. high, terminating at the south in a mound 12 ft. in height ; at the south-west corner is a similar mound, but whether an ancient work or the dredgings from the moat can- not be ascertained. Around the greater part of a large area, including the three courts, a tract of land at the eastern and western sides, is a water ditch ; this has been nominated an outer moat, but it would rather appear to have served for the drainage of the land and the overflow from the moats. 621