A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE moat 60 ft. wide. Other works may be traced on the north and the east, but they are mutilated. To the north-east is an embanked fishpond close by the River Wreak, from which it has been fed by an artificial channel. Two tumuli are within the area. The railway now runs between it and the Priory. KlRBY MUXLOE (XXX, 12). ' KIRBY CASTLE ' was a fortified manor house of Tudor days. On a rectangular site the walls arose from a moat varying between 3 oft. and 40 ft. wide before the entrance and the south-west side respectively ; it gradually widens on the north to 70 ft., and thus continues along the south-east. The Rothley Brook flows past the latter side from which the moat is fed by a channel ; on the south is a sluice and a small lake to receive the overflow, with an outlet for the waters to again enter the river. The revetment formerly existing has gone, and the moat is now being rilled with rubbish. Of the defensive buildings there remain the entrance gate- way with two flanking towers, and a curtain wall connecting them with a tower and other fragments, but these belong to another chapter in this history. KIRKBY MALLORY (xxxvi, i). Five and a half miles north-east from Hinckley, and one mile north of the village, are the 'Kirkby Moats,' situated in a wood east of the high road. Enormous labour must have been entailed in the construction of these moats, which are almost square in plan, each side measuring about 500 ft. in length. The central plateau, 90 ft. square, is surrounded by three great ditches and a triple vallum. The innermost moat is 1 1 ft. deep, and over 45 ft. wide ; this is surrounded by a vallum 17 ft. in height ; the middle moat, not so wide as the inner one, is filled up on the eastern side for a length of 30 ft., thereby creating a rectangular platform between the two earthen walls. Another platform is found on the same side near the north-east angle, and this is pierced by a short arm of the inner moat which penetrates it eastward to the confines of the outer moat, providing an elongated pit. Immediately north of this branch moat, at the north-east angle of the works, an entrance path curves across the two outer aggers. Indications of two other entrances are at the south-east 268 MOAT AND SITE OF HALL, KIRBY BELLARS
