NHER 2369 (Designed Landscape record) - Raynham Park

Raynham Hall (NHER 2368) on the 1621 map (S2) has only a limited area of parkland beyond the area of formal gardens. The garden layout was one of the largest in England. The area to the north and south of the avenue leading west from the Hall was the small area of park on this map. The park steadily grew in size throughout the 17th century especially during the 1660s. This expansion was at the expense of open-field arable and common land.
An early 18th century map (S2) shows largely empty parkland with all the formal features removed, some informal tree planting has replaced them; Edmund Prideau’s 1727 illustration of the park (S2), ‘Lake from the West Front’, indicates that the area west of the river is informally planted. By the 1720s, the park extended c.300 hectares east of the river. By 1732, de-formalisation of the park immediately around the Hall was complete, known from a letter that year written by Lord Oxford; the lake was created, the walled gardens were abandoned, the kitchen gardens were relocated away from the Hall and the first Ha-Ha was built. The early 18th century map shows the relocated kitchen garden east of St Mary’s Church (NHER 2378), which was sited south-east of the Hall on the edge of the park. The main entrance to the Hall is via a road leading up from the Old Hall (NHER 2366) and the church.
A c.1785 map (S2) of the whole of West Raynham parish shows the area of the park, consisting of open grass, woods and a sparse scatter of standing trees. The park had extended south and a new trapezoid kitchen garden moved again onto this park extension, where it is located today, close to the main Fakenham road (today A1065). It was built on top of a road leading east from the church.
The First Edition Ordnance Survey map (S5) shows that some plantations within the park had virtually gone. The park had extended north-east and south-east, and there was now a wide tree belt in the north-east corner, and along the rivers leading to and from the lake, running north and south. A new entrance was established by the late 19th century from the Fakenham road. The avenue from the 1600s was re-established, mainly of lime trees, now about 150 years old. It was not shown on the 1840 Tithe award map (S6) but the size of the existing trees indicates it was planted not long after.
Since the 19th century the main change has been the return of most of the park to arable use. Most of the plantations in the park survive and only standing trees have vanished. Only the area close to the Hall, especially between the Hall and the lake remains under grass and retains many trees.
Within the park are earthworks from farming, roads and former gardens. Most of the trees in the park are oaks or sycamores, many over 200 years old, relating to the de-formalisation of 1720s/1730s.
Historic Parkland grade two.
See (S2), (S5) and (S6).
E. Rose (NAU);14 March 1994; 17 December 2002.
Updated by C. Hurst (UEA), 15 November 2011.

Context 1: Ice house.
Source [1] notes that the entrance is bricked up and owner was unwilling to have it opened.

Possible hollow way and possible ha-ha seen on NCC/BKS vertical survey of Norfolk, 1988.
Feature extends about 150m from TF 8847 2550 to TF 8848 2565 in grounds of Raynham Hall.
See (S1) taken 30 September 1988).
Located 13 January 1993 during NLA Earthwork Survey.
M. Flitcroft (NLA) 28 January 1993.

July-August 2014. Watching Brief and Strip Map and Sample Excavation.
Archaeological mitigation work undertaken during installation of underground electrical cable for West Raynham Solar Park.
At c.TF 8849 2583 the cable trench cut through the extant ha-ha to the east of Raynham Hall. The resulting section demonstrated that the ha-ha was originally 13.15m wide and 1.8m deep, which is considerably more substantial than its present form.
Features exposed within the area enclosed by the ha-ha were also probably associated with Raynham Hall. These included the remains of a north-west to south-east aligned brick wall with mortared flint foundations at c. TF 8837 2573 and a flint and clay surface to the south. An ashy spread adjacent to the latter contained several objects of 18th-/19th-century date.
Features recorded in the parkland beyond the ha-ha included a number of undated ditches and a series of similarly-aligned furrows. The later were regarded as the remnants of medieval ridge and furrow cultivation.
No unstratified finds were recovered.
See report (S7) and NHERs 65275-65279 for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 3 February 2022.

September 2016. Watching Brief.
Monitoring of groundworks associated with River Wensum Restoration scheme. The monitored works included the re-excavation of a relict river channel between TF 8811 2488 and TF 8814 2472 and the excavation of a new channel linked this to the main river channel at TF 8819 2471.
No archaeologically-significant features or deposits were recorded and a cattle bone was the only find recovered.
See report (S8) for further details.
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2018.359).
P. Watkins (HES), 14 May 2024.