The Moat House

The Moat House is a house, now a restaurant, dating back to circa 1572, with significant alterations in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Constructed primarily of brick with ashlar dressings, it has a tile roof and brick stacks. The building follows an H-plan and is of Elizabethan style. The main two-storey, symmetrical section has an eight-window front, with projecting gabled ends incorporating 20th-century single-storey additions. The gables are crow-stepped. The main entrance features a bolection-moulded architrave, an armorial panel, and a gable with a ball finial. The ground floor has five windows with 12-pane sashes at the centre, while the ends each have two windows with 12-pane sashes beneath drip courses; the left-hand end windows have thicker glazing bars. The first floor has six windows with dripstones over 12-pane sashes and thick glazing bars, with Venetian windows at the ends featuring similar sashes. The attic has three dormer windows, all with 6-pane sashes. Multiple, multi-shafted stacks, decorated with blue brick enrichment, are present; gable ends also have stacks.

The left end of the building incorporates a three-stage tower, with the top stage rebuilt in the 19th century and featuring an ashlar embattled parapet and two-light, double-chamfered mullion windows under dripstones. A 19th-century service wing is located to the left, exhibiting similar detailing, including a gable over a four-light transomed ground-floor window, a three-light first-floor window, and an attic light. A lean-to outshut is found on the right return, with two gabled dormers.

The rear of the building has two gables to the left and one to the right of a recess, with a 19th-century gabled wing and 20th-century infill to the left. Original 16th-century windows are mostly double-chamfered mullions; the left end is obscured by ivy, while sashed windows are present elsewhere. A stair wing to the left of the recess has 16th-century cross-mullioned windows, and the right end has two three-light windows to the ground floor, with a casement replacing a sash on the first floor; all attic windows feature two- or three-light casements with small panes. A 19th-century kitchen court with an embattled parapet to the wall is on the right end.

The interior includes Tudor-headed doors on the ground floor, a segmental-headed recess with 17th-century panelling, and a fireplace with a Tudor arch, enriched spandrels, architrave, frieze, and cornice. A newel staircase has square newels with pendants and ball finials, strapwork panels, and a moulded handrail; the top landing boasts splat balusters, similar to those at Tamworth Castle. A long room on the first floor features a 16th-century plaster ceiling with square and oval panels bearing armorial bearings or birds with grapes, and a Tudor-arched fireplace with a fluted frieze and cornice. The house was formerly owned by the Comberford family, who entertained Charles I while he was Prince of Wales. It is considered one of Tamworth’s oldest and most interesting buildings.