Blue Man's Bower
Has been described as a Rejected Fortified Manor House
There are earthwork remains
| Name | Blue Man's Bower |
| Alternative Names | |
| Historic Country | Yorkshire |
| Modern Authority | Rotherham |
| 1974 Authority | South Yorkshire |
| Civil Parish | Whiston |
Blue Man's Bower is an unusual example of its class in that a natural feature has been used to create an outer enclosure round the moated site itself. Although no longer wet, its moat and fishponds are sufficiently waterlogged for there to be some survival of organic and palaeoenvironmental material. In addition, despite the 1939 excavation, undisturbed deposits remain on the island and also around it, between the moat and the outer enclosure.
The main component of Blue Man's Bower moated site is a small rectangular island, measuring c.12m x 15m, partially excavated in 1939 by C.E.Whiting. Found at this time were a series of large stones interpreted as padstones for a barn or similar building. The island seems too small, however, to have been the site of a house. Surrounding the island is a 5m wide moat with outer banks to the south-west and south-east and channels leading off at the south and west corners. These connected with a ditch running parallel with the south- west arm of the moat. This ditch, a dried-up stream-bed, indicates that the stream west of the site has been diverted, and that, at the time the moated site was built, it curved round the site as an outer moat instead of running past it north to south. It is crossed by a causeway mid-way between the channels coming off the moat and once connected with a line of infill, visible to the south and now overgrown with trees. Converging with this filled-in section is another line of infill representing a former course of the Ulley Brook along which the parish boundary still runs. Faint earthworks and a line of lush grass running northwards from the confluence, indicate a string of filled-in fishponds running north-south across the bend in the stream, thereby creating a bow- shaped outer enclosure round the moated site. The northernmost fishpond is still visible as a rectangular reed-filled depression measuring c.50m x 15m. (Scheduling Report)
This site is a scheduled monument protected by law
Not Listed
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
| OS Map Grid Reference | SK438896 |
| Latitude | 53.4013900756836 |
| Longitude | -1.34205996990204 |
| Eastings | 443850 |
| Northings | 389606 |
