World Drowning Prevention Day: The Knight in the Moat

The 25th July is World Drowning Prevention Day. This awareness day seemed an opportune time to tell the cautionary tale of a knight who drowned in the moat at Middleton Hall and illustrates the necessity of learning about S.A.F.E. (Stay Away From the Edge), as the Canal & River Trust advises.

The moat at Middleton Hall is deceptive because it is very deep. Middleton Hall Trust excavated it to a depth of more than three metres without reaching the bottom. In the 16th century, the moat was lined with bricks and stone, which created tall vertical edges. Furthermore, because this edging was not only deep but also extended underground for more than a metre inland from the edge, no barriers were able to be driven in and erected around the edge. Hence, it is very plausible for someone to accidentally fall in and if anyone did, they would have a very tangible risk of being unable to get out safely. This is what happened to the knight and his horse.

Originally, the moat at Middleton Hall was of a double-island or figure-8 shape. Over time, parts were drained and filled in. In the 1850s, John Peel, who was a tenant of Middleton Hall, drained the surviving parts of the moat, filling some of it in and turning the remainder into a dry moat. In the process of doing this, the remains of a knight, in full armour, and his horse, also armoured, were discovered. Given the depth of the moat, the steep vertical brick sides and that he was wearing heavy armour, it is not surprising that both perished in the moat. This unknown knight was then buried at Middleton Church and his gauntlets and helmet put on display within the Church.

Many local stories then developed around the identity of the knight. There was the age-old tale of a dark and stormy night and that the knight had come to Middleton Hall but was unfamiliar with the moat layout and did not see the hazard and fell in. Another tale on a similar vein said he was a drunken knight who fell in when it was dark. Others gave a more romantic tale and said that he was the lost love of our resident ghost, the Grey Lady. It was also suggested that he was a messenger relating the result of the Battle of Bosworth, but the armour style was wrong. Another tale was that he was a Civil War soldier who failed in his attempt to cross the moat and assail the Hall. However, others depicted him as a Civil War messenger instead of attacker. These Civil War era tales were the most difficult to dismiss because the armour on display was determined as correct for the era. It was not until 1926, over 70 years later, that the identity of the knight was finally discovered and it proved all of the tales incorrect.

In 1926, Reverend Robert Vere Hodge, vicar of Middleton Church, received a letter from the Ridgeway family in Ireland. They were enquiring about the death of a member of their family called Edward, who was the brother of the Cassandra Ridgeway who had married Sir Francis II Willoughby. When they had examined their family tree, there was a notation against the name of Edward that he had drowned in the moat at “Willoughby Hall” in Warwickshire. The mistake in the name of the place had meant that they had been unable to determine where his death had actually occurred despite searching for many years.

Reverend Vere Hodge immediately knew that they had the right place because, on the south side of the chancel, Middleton Church contained a very large funerary monument for Edward Ridgeway. He also realised that it solved the long mystery of the remains of the unknown knight in the moat and immediately moved his gauntlets and helmets to either side of his memorial, where they remain today. The date provided on the memorial means that we know when the accident occurred because it recorded that Lord Edward Ridgeway died on 19th September 1638. However, we still do not know how he and his horse fell into the moat.

The funerary monument for Edward Ridgeway in St John's Church, Middleton with his helmet and gauntlets alongside, 2015. Photograph taken by Debbie Jordan.

Author - Debbie Jordan, Middleton Hall Volunteer.

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