Record Details

NHER Number:9451
Type of record:Monument
Name:Kett's Oak

Summary

A veteran oak tree, reputed locally to be the tree where Robert Kett addressed his rebels in 1549.

Images - none

Location

Grid Reference:TG 1387 0355
Map Sheet:TG10SW
Parish:HETHERSETT, SOUTH NORFOLK, NORFOLK

Full description

Ordnance Survey antiquity.
Name comes from the fact that nine rebels were hung there, and not (as local people now say) that Kett held a review there. The original 'Kett's Oak of Reformation' was near St Leonards Priory on Gas Hill, Norwich. Legend states that its roots reach to Norwich in one direction and Wymondham on the other.
Visited by E. Rose (NAU) 4 June 1980.

Oak is alive but in poor condition. It has been split down the middle where it divides into two huge branches; one branch has been lopped off, the other is supported on a wooden truss. The crack has been filled with cement and roofed with tarred felt, and the tree bound with iron bands, long enough ago for the bark to grow over them. Iron railings around have plaques 'Ketts Oak 1549' and 'W. H. Back 1910'. New layby opened alongside.
Press cutting in file.
E. Rose (NAU)

Monument Types

  • GALLOWS (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
  • NAMED TREE (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)

Associated Finds - none

Protected Status - none

Sources and further reading

---Article in Serial: 1933. [unknown]. Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society. Vol XIII, pp 356-7. pp 356-357.
---Newspaper Article: Eastern Daily Press. 1988. Repairs to ancient oak. 25 June.
---Record Card: Ordnance Survey Staff. 1933-1979?. Ordnance Survey Record Cards. TG 10 SW 1 [2].
---Record Card: NAU Staff. 1974-1988. Norfolk Archaeological Index Primary Record Card.
---Newspaper Article: Eastern Daily Press. 1994. Story of Kett's Oak is retold. 26 November.
---Newspaper Article: Eastern Daily Press. 1995. Mighty oak on last legs. 14 January.
---Publication: Grigor, J.. 1841. The Eastern Arboretum. p.324.
---Newspaper Article: Eastern Daily Press. 2010. Ancient oaks under threat from disease. 4 May.
---Secondary File: Secondary File.
---Record Card: Clarke, R. R. and NCM Staff. 1933-1973. Norwich Castle Museum Record Card - Miscellaneous. Hethersett.

Related records - none

Find out more...

Norfolk County Council logo Heritage Lottery Fund logo

Powered by HBSMR-web and the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd, and mojoPortal CMS
© 2007 - 2024 Norfolk Historic Environment Service