Humphrey Pakington was a keen gardener himself, and the herb-garden in the south-east angle of the moat has recently been restored and replanted . The moat attracts many water-fowl to the island, on the west side of which is the Georgian chapel, built by the Throckmortons in 1743 and now restored with 18th century altar, rails and organ.

On the west side of the cobbled courtyard a gap in the brick and sandstone wall leads into the South Garden. On the far side of a round lawn are the Elizabethan malt-house and the Georgian chapel. Halfway along the wall to the right, another gap leads into the North Garden, an expanse of turf fringed with trees and narrowing to a point at the northernmost tip of the island. There is a path all round the edge of the moat, beginning at the south bridge outside the brew-house and continuing behind the malt-house and the Georgian chapel to the wash-house and damson tree in the North Garden. On the west side the moat broadens out into a small lake with waterfowl and good coarse fishing.

 

The moat was originally the second of a chain of five pools constructed in the 13th century in a fashion common in the forests of Arden and Feckenham. Apart from the moat itself the topmost (Gallows Pool) and the third (Upper Pond) still hold water. The fourth and fifth (Middle Pond and Harvington Pond) are now only marshy depressions along the brook which flows down to the village and so into the Stour. A few yards north-west of the moat is the sandstone quarry used in the construction of the Hall. In the 18th century it was known as the Dog Kennel, and holes for the rafters of lean-to buildings show that shelters of some kind formerly existed there.

The malt-house, which is of sandstone below and brick and timber above, still has its 18th-century malting-kiln, part of the malting-floor of lime-ash and the wooden hoist for raising sacks of barley. It is not , at the moment, open to the public for safety reasons but we have recently been awarded an Hertitage Lottery Grant to restore it and create a new education facility and visitor centre there.