Homes with moats

Morley Old Hall is a grade I-listed 16th-century manor house 12 miles outside Norwich at the end of a tree-lined road. The moat is just one part of the lordly living it offers – the main reception room used to be known as the Great Chamber and boasts heavily timbered walls and a magnificent fireplace. The dining room and drawing room are similarly stately. For a guide price of £2.5m you also get three cottages, 32 acres, and the chance to say Princess Diana's stepfather's first wife used to live in your home.
Strutt and Parker: 01603 617431 Photograph: Strutt and Parker/Strutt and Parker

The four-bedroom Jenningsbury Court is just outside Hertford, so probably not easy to justify on top of a London home. If you do decide country living is for you this barn conversion offers an impressive drawing room with a vaulted ceiling and minstrel's gallery as well as a dining room, reception hall and kitchen/breakfast room – and all for £847,500. The private moat sits in 0.72 acres of land, along with a thatched pergola and double garage.
Churchills Chartered Surveyors: 01992 500151 Photograph: Churchills Chartered Surveyors/Churchills Chartered Surveyors

Dating from around 1600, Hyde Hall near Chelmsford is a handsome and imposing timber-framed manor house with genuine Elizabethan beams (take that John Prescott). The £2.3m grade II-listed house, which was mentioned by Pevsner, is ideal for both entertaining and family living, with a substantial drawing room a near neighbour to a cosy study. There are five bedrooms on the first floor, and room for more sleepers in the attic rooms. The moat is dry so there's no need for maintenance.
Strutt and Parker: 01425 2582010 Photograph: Strutt & Parker/Strutt & Parker

Located two-and-half miles from the Essex village of Great Dunmow, the grade II-listed Tooleys House offers a wealth of opportunities for expenses claims – there's a swimming pool to maintain and 9 acres of grounds to keep neat. Your wine can cool in the cellar while you chill on a seated area by the moat or one of the numerous lawns. Inside, exposed beams and inglenook fires add bags of character. With six bedrooms – three of them en suite – there's plenty of room for guests. The guide price is £2.25m.
Strutt and Parker: 01425 2582010 Photograph: Strutt & Parker/Strutt & Parker

You may struggle to convince anyone it's your constituency home – it's in France – but it's got to be worth a go. There has been a chateau on the land between Gourdon and Sarlat in the Dordogne since 1440, although the current building dates back to early last century. You'll need to do some work to complete the renovations, but you'll be rewarded with a stunning five-bed home with huge cellars and a gate house. The moat is dry, but there's planning permission for a pool if you fancy a dip. Cost: €1.8m.
Winkworth International: (0)20 8576 5582 Photograph: Winkworth International/Winkworth International

A short hop into London for busy MPs, with a double-arched bridge over a moat to defend the property from prying media. The grade-II listed, six-bed Lexden Lodge near Colchester, Essex, dates back to the 15th century and includes a gym, games room, wet room and outdoor pool. A gallery overlooks the kitchen, complete with Aga (and its £160 servicing cost). Horsey types will be impressed – the property is currently a stud and dressage farm. Fenn Wright Country and Equestrian, 01206 763388 Photograph: Fenn Wright Country and Equestrian/Fenn Wright Country and Equestrian

Maybe more for the lord or duke than your average MP. For £2.5m you don’t get the whole of Devizes Castle, Wiltshire, just the “principal part” with seven bedrooms, six receptions and four bathrooms. Once the property of Catherine of Aragon, it was rebuilt in the 1830s after being largely destroyed in the civil war. There are stone mullioned windows, canopied fireplaces and galleried rooms. The gardens and grounds are limited – just 2.4 acres beyond its dry moat.
Savills, 020 7016 3822 Photograph: Savills/Savills

This number is one for the more cash-strapped MP, selling for less than the price of a studio flat in central London. A footbridge takes you to this three-bed terrace encircled by a medieval moat, close to the historic market town of Howden in East Yorkshire. You can enjoy an open-plan living and dining area, a modern kitchen with integrated appliances, and a study. You are surrounded by open fields and woodland.
Park Row Properties, 01405 761199 Photograph: Park Row Properties/Park Row Properties