NHER 30507 (Designed Landscape record) - Heacham Park

The first map of the site is from 1625 (S1), before it was developed into a park. A few relatively wealthy farmers owned and farmed the land, and their cottages were on the west side of the road leading north from the church (NHER 1486) to the site of the old Heacham Hall (NHER 12481). The old hall was sited north of the present park and sat in grounds bounded north and south by common land, suggesting that it was carved out of common land. It is likely that the grounds were a farm and not a park.
Edmund Rolfe purchased the land in 1694 and built a house, the park started to be developed in 1764. By then the estate had enlarged by 164 acres. A road was diverted, which had ran west of the house, to allow for the park’s expansion. In 1770 a kitchen garden was built. Accounts show that at the time, the fish pond was extended, gravel paths were laid and tree planting took place. The house had three small gardens, noted in 1773 at a combined measurement of just over one acre.
A new Hall started to be built in 1775, after the park had been developed. The new park and Hall are seen on a late 18th century map (S4), with patches of fairly young woodland. The Hall was built east of the patch of common land, which, due to the changes in the road system, was difficult to reach from the village and by the time of the 1839 Tithe Award map (S5), had been incorporated into the park, probably in the Heacham Enclosure Act of 1781, where the Heacham lands increased by 94 acres. The 1839 map shows a new road stretching east from the house, bounded on the north by a new plantation. Further planting had taken place north and east of the house, so that the northern half of the park was completely enclosed by trees.
The 1906 Ordnance Survey map (S1) shows a new fish pond to the south. A 1921 advertisement for the estate mentions there being a rose garden, kitchen gardens and glasshouses. The Hall was demolished after World War II, the park was broken up and now has a small housing development to the north.
Now, many of the trees that once grew in the park are gone.
See (S1), (S4) and (S5).
E. Rose (NLA) 17 March 1994.
Updated by C. Hurst (UEA) 14 November 2011.

(S3) in file.

February 2022. Desk-based Assessment.
Assessment of the significance Heacham Park (NHER 30507) and the potential impact of a proposed new house (which would be built close to the site of the hall demolished in 1941).
The initial work on the construction of the hall and its grounds are detailed in notebooks covering the years 1774-1778, which are now held at the Norfolk Record Office. References to work in the gardens include mention of a greenhouse with sash windows in 1775 and the construction of a melon pit in 1776. The work to make the grounds is though mainly described in an account book entitled 'Various Expenses in the Improvements at Heacham Begun in 1768'. There is no evidence that the park was designed by any of the more well-known landscape architects, with its various phases of development most likely the work of local surveyors/nurserymen, working alongside the estate gardeners and the owners. There was possibly an interest in views to the south-west in the direction of the sea but no real attempt at structured views.
As noted above the original design of the park can be seen on an undated estate map (S4) that was probably drawn up around 1780, following it completion. The large new kitchen garden shown on this map is known to have been divided into three sections – the North Garden, the Middle Garden and the Greenhouse Garden.
Surviving features within the park include a low brick wall and ha ha to the south of the hall that separated the pleasure grounds from the park. This was though a relatively late addition, being added between the production of the Ordnance Survey First Edition maps in 1887 and the Second Edition in 1904.
A tree survey undertaken as part of this study suggests that the majority of the trees in the park (c.65%) are of late 19th- or 20th-century date. The older trees are mostly of 19th-century date, with only around 15 trees – mostly oaks - likely to predate 1800. Therefore while Heacham has "…in broad terms, the character of a small 18th-century landscape park…", much of the planting is comparatively recent, with some of the more prominent elements dating to the 20th century.
The park contains a number of archaeological features of moderate interest relating to former field boundaries present prior to its creation. Visualised lidar data also shows a network of low, parallel ridges in the area to the north-west of the lake, some of which are just about discernible on the ground. It is possible that these represent the traces of an early 'floating' meadow irrigation system that was levelled when the park was created.
Overall it is concluded that whilst the park represents a landscape of local rather than regional importance.
See report (S6) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 12 July 2025.