Record Details

NHER Number:30439
Type of record:Designed Landscape
Name:Hanworth Park

Summary

A late 18th century landscape park laid out following advice from Humphry Repton in 1789. The park is on the site of an earlier 16th century park. The park is now much reduced by ploughing, but still has a sweet chestnut tree planted before 1650, the largest in the country.

Images - none

Location

Grid Reference:TG 19661 34907
Map Sheet:TG13SE
Parish:ALDBOROUGH, NORTH NORFOLK, NORFOLK
HANWORTH, NORTH NORFOLK, NORFOLK

Full description

Historic Parkland Grade II.
A small park is known to have existed at Hanworth in 1581, when it was owned by the Earl of Arundel. In the mid seventeenth century the site was owned by the Doughty family but it is unknown if a park still existed at that date. The Hall (NHER 6636) was built in the early eighteenth century by the Doughty family and there is evidence of a landscape park on (S3).
Repton worked on the site in the late 1780s, part of his work involved creating a new approach. He was also involved in planning the area towards the kitchen garden, which features a sweet chestnut with a girth of 26 feet.
By (S4) in 1812 the park had expanded slightly in the north east, and this area continued to be depicted as part of the estate throughout the nineteenth century.
The map with (S5) shows the detached kitchen garden, which was shielded from the house by the ‘Ice house plantation’. The church (NHER 6817) was also surrounded by plantations as was a farm to the south-east of the Hall. Also evident on (S5) are two serpentine lakes, which may have been established in connection with the water supply to the hall, or the ice house (NHER 12168).
In 1900 the park is said to have been well timbered with fine specimen oak, beech and chestnut trees. The lithograph of 1900 (see S2 for more details) seems to indicate a walled area to the west of the hall. The park remained much the same size in the first half of the twentieth century, but there was a thickening of the woodland belt in the south west surrounding the southernmost lake.
Information from (S1) and (S2). Also see (S3-5) for more details.
E. Rose (NLA), 28 February 1994.
Updated by E. Nicholl (UEA), 14 November 2011.

January 2003.
Area of registered park reduced.
See map of original layout in file.
M. Horlock (NLA), 4 March 2003.

Monument Types

  • ICEHOUSE (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
  • KITCHEN GARDEN (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
  • LANDSCAPE PARK (Post Medieval to 21st Century - 1540 AD to 2100 AD)

Associated Finds - none

Protected Status

  • Registered Park or Garden

Sources and further reading

---Monograph: Pevsner, N. and Wilson, B. 1997. Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East. The Buildings of England. 2nd Edition. p 538.
---Newspaper Article: Eastern Daily Press. 2010. Ancient tree helps raise funds for hall and heroes. 15 May.
---Designation: English Heritage. 1990-2013. English Heritage Parks and Gardens Notification. Notification. DNF554.
<S1>Designation: English Heritage. Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England..
<S2>Unpublished Document: Norfolk County Council. [unknown]. Inventory of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Norfolk..
<S3>Publication: Faden, W. and Barringer, J. C. 1989. Faden's Map of Norfolk in 1797.
<S4>Map: Ordnance Survey. 1813. OS 1st Edition 2".
<S5>Sale Particulars: 1845. Sale Particular of Hanworth Hall estate.

Related records

12168Parent of: Icehouse, Hanworth Hall (Monument)
6636Part of: Hanworth Hall, Hanworth (Building)

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