NHER 31972 (Designed Landscape record) - Watlington Hall Park

Park may have existed before 1773 but was there by 1794; probable road diversions. Faden’s map (S3), surveyed in 1794, showed the Hall (NHER 2279) in the centre of a designed landscape of c.80 hectares. Today’s entrance from the south-west is unaltered from the drive shown on Faden’s map. The 1839 Tithe Award map (S4) shows that the 2 and-a-half acres surrounding the Hall included formal gardens, a shrubbery and a pleasure ground. In the centre of the park the stables and coach-house are shown, with an adjacent 2 acres of (probably kitchen) gardens. The remainder of the park totalled 46 acres. In the north-east corner is an area of pasture of 11 acres. The pasture land to the east was intersected with dykes. Woodland bordered the park to the north and north-east, and part of the west boundary. The park was bordered by roads to the west, south and east.
The 1869 map was drawn up for the sale of the estate (S1). The sale particulars described the park as ‘sheltered from the north by hansome belts and plantations’. The park is c.100 acres. The 1885 First Edition 6 inch Ordnance Survey map (S5) shows tree belts along the west, north and south boundaries, and the south road boundary is also tree lined. There are lodges. There are standing trees across the whole of the open parkland, some show old field boundaries.
The 1929 6 inch Ordnance Survey map (S6) shows a small extension to north-west woodland.
See (S1), (S3), (S4), (S5) and (S6).
E. Rose (NLA), 30 August 1996.
Updated by C. Hurst (UEA), 15 November 2011.

September 2007. ALSF NHER Enhancement Sub-Unit D.
Finds from within the park are recorded as NHER 25492.
M. Dennis (NLA), 19 September 2007.