NHER 33727 (Monument record) - Earlham Park

Historic Parkland on (S1).
The Bacon family owned the Hall (NHER 9412) between 1682 and 1786 and were responsible for the formation of the park. A park was mentioned in the accounts for 1733 but it is not known how far this extended. The accounts also note that the pond was dug at this date. The park was depicted on (S2) and included a large area to the south of the present park. It is unlikely that this was ever truly a landscape park but was probably pasture fields considered as part of the aesthetic landscape. Hedegrow trees from the pre-park landscape were kept to form mature specimens in an otherwise young landscape. The Ha-Ha was probably put in when the park was created.
The area immediately to the north of the hall which consists of horse chestnuts may be the remnants of a grove associated with the early eighteenth century gardens. There are also a number of pits and irregular depressions within the park which are probably the result of gravel extraction although some may also have been used for marl, these were obscured by tree planting when the park was formed. The present dove house (NHER 9414) was probably built in the late eighteenth century, although an earlier dove house to the north-east of the hall preceded it.
From the end of the eighteenth century the main entrance drive to the hall was from the south east. In the early nineteenth century the north east drive was in place but the lodge was not built until the end of the century or possibly the beginning of the twentieth. Nineteenth century walks surround the western side of the hall, banks within this area are the earthworks of earlier gardens. A walled garden, sunken garden, rock garden and kitchen garden lie to the south-east of the hall. An ice house also to the south east of the house is shown on (S8). The southern belt of the park was planted between 1843 and (S9).
Towards the end of the nineteenth century a small building was erected on the inner side of the belt and was probably a keeper’s cottage. A number of other buildings known as ‘bridge cottages' shown on (S8) were demolished in 1938 to make way for road widening.
See (S1) for more details. Also see (S2),(S8) and (S9) for more information.
E. Rose (NLA) 24 July 1998.
Updated by E. Nicholl (UEA), 21 November 2011.

1998. Fieldwalking. NCM Enquiry No: E0885.
Flint knife and scraper/borer.
See list in file.
A. Rogerson (NLA) 21 March 2000.

July 2010. Norfolk NMP.
The hollow way, described as possibly medieval in origin (NHER 9392), as well as several other earthworks which appear to be related to post medieval park features are visible on aerial photographs (S3-S7).
The possible hollow way runs from TG 1899 0822 to TG 1907 0810. A second linear earthwork is visible to the east, from TG 1912 0821 to TG 1914 0811 and appears to continue to the south of Earlham Hall, as far as TG 1922 0767. Further earthworks are visible to the south of the Hall (S7) which also appear to relate to post medieval garden features.
Cropmarks of possible enclosures are also visible (S6), centred at TG 1904 0816, TG 1908 0817 and TG 1918 0817. A World War Two barrage balloon site (NHER 54414) is visible within the first of these possible enclosures. It is therefore possible that these cropmarks may be modern in origin, although they may relate to Earlham deserted medieval village (NHER 9392) recorded in the area.
E. Bales (NMP), 20 July 2010.

August 2020. Registered, grade II.
Information from (S10.
Please consult the National Heritage List for England (S10 for the current listing details.