Norfolk Heritage Explorer

Location

Full description

6 October 1993. NLA air photography.
Area of park around Oxborough Hall, NHER2627, to be seen.
H.Clare (NLA), 1 February 2001.

Historic Parkland Grade II.
Date of park unknown, in existence before 1794, with lake. Massively extended in 19th century, lake removed by 1908. Park as such is no longer extant - N County Council Inventory of Parks. Garden parterre laid out around 1845 on design of D'Argenville's 'Theorie'. Wilderness laid out to northeast, now restored English Heritage Register of Historic Parkland.
Note that the boundary of the area designated by Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission somewhat oddly intersects with the walls of the walled garden, for which see NHER 2627.
E. Rose (NLA), 11 March 1994.

The (S1) survey of garden earthworks also crosses the boundary between the two.

1999. Earthworks Survey.
South of the hall, an incomplete banked enclosure with part of a central subdividing bank appears to have been a raised garden walkway. Other linear features include a prominent 19th century pipeline ridge and various slight scarps and depressions, some of which probably represent watercourse channels.
See report (S1) for plan and further details. This site was included in (S2) and the survey is also noted in (S3).
D. Holburn (HES), 21 November 2011.

February 2016. Watching Brief.
Monitoring of groundworks associated with installation of new ducting for fibre optic IT cables.
A trench dug between the main entrance to the hall and the walled garden revealed a possible make-up deposit beneath the modern topsoil.
Trenches dug within the walled garden itself encountered only garden soils beneath the modern gravel paths. A 19th-century perfume bottle was the only find recovered.
See report (S4) for further details.
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2017.563).
P. Watkins (HES), 24 April 2024.

January-February 2018. Watching Brief.
Monitoring of groundworks associated with installation of new fibre optic cable between Church Lodge (NHER 4206) and the walled garden.
The excavated trench revealed two walls, the first of which was near the tarmac driveway at TF 7434 0139 and appeared to be the corner of a former building. Beneath this wall was a mixed clay silt deposit containing brick fragments and oyster shells that lay above the natural clay. The footings of the second wall were encountered adjacent to The Pantry at TF 7433 0136. These footings sat directly on the natural clay and probably represented the foundations of an earlier outbuilding. Neither wall appears on the Ordnance Survey First Edition 25-inch map (S5), with the nature of their construction and nearby finds suggesting they were most likely associated with buildings of late 18th- or early 19th-century date. What appeared to be the mortar bedding for a north-east to south-west aligned wall was also uncovered adjacent to the entrance to the grounds (at TF 7434 0142). Brick coping recovered nearby resembles that on top of the extant wall connected to Church Lodge. There was clear evidence for past landscaping in this, with levelling deposits containing post-medieval debris lying directly above the natural deposits.
See report (S6) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 24 April 2024.

Monument Types

• PARK (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)

Associated Finds

• BOTTLE (19th Century - 1801 AD to 1900 AD)

Protected Status

• Registered Park or Garden
• SHINE

Sources and further reading

Related records

Find out more...

• Parish Summary: Oxborough (Parish Summary)