NHER 31970 (Designed Landscape record) - Gayton Hall Park

The majority of the site of the nineteenth century hall, park, gardens and home farm were in single ownership by 1726 (S4). But no site is marked on (S3).
The present Gayton Hall was built as a shooting box between 1803 and 1810 for St Andrew St John. Ornamental landscapes were laid out around the new hall between 1810 and 1827. Water gardens and pleasure grounds were formed around the existing moat (NHER 3771), fishponds and water course. Thirty acres of parkland was divided into ‘lawns’, and there was planting around the pleasure grounds in the same period. The parish map of 1803 (See (S1) for details) shows the outline of a plantation around the watercourse. St John continued to purchase land in the parish and was allotted further acreage in the enclosure of 1810/1813 (See (S1) for details). To the south of the water course the former pasture and closes had been split into four fields by 1810 (See (S1)).
By 1839 (S5), the roads directly west and south of the new hall had been closed and the watercourse remodelled into a series of lakes and planted islands. To the south of the house, over three acres of garden and shrubbery were planted and a new kitchen garden was built. The angles of the boundaries and the interior of the ‘park’ were dotted with small groups of trees and an almost continuous belt of trees was planted along the road.
The tithe map (S5) and the First Edition Ordnance Survey (S6) show a remarkable degree of continuity between 1839 and 1889. The Second Edition Ordnance Survey map (S7) suggests a well-planted park to the north and east and sparser planting to the south-west.
See (S1) for details. Also, (S2), (S3), (S4), (S5), (S6) and (S7).
E. Rose (NLA), 30 August 1996.
Updated by E. Nicholl (UEA), 8 November 2011