NHER 52444 (Monument record) - Earthworks of medieval to post medieval road to Kirby Old Hall

November 2009. Norfolk NMP.
The earthworks of the post medieval, or medieval to post medieval, road to Kirby Old Hall through Kirby Park are visible on aerial photographs from the 1940s and 1950s (S1-S2) and an early nineteenth century map (S3). More recent photography indicates that the earthworks have been plough levelled. The site is centred on TG 2728 0480. The road leads towards the post medieval Kirby Old Hall and therefore may well be of post medieval date also, however it is possible that the road originally led to any earlier medieval building within the medieval deer park (NHER 42456), see below for discussion. The road is depicted on the 1812 Kirby Bedon Enclosure map (S3) following the same route as the earthworks. A road through the park starting from the same location is also depicted on Faden’s map of 1797 (S4), however the two routes do not match, although it is feasible that this is due an inaccuracy in the Faden mapping.
The road runs from TG 2726 0462 to TG 2728 0495. The northern part of the road has a raised, embanked surface. The route is demarcated by ditches, which run from the side of the road, which is the location that has been recorded as where Sir John Bernoy's White Gate stood, the entrance to the Kirby Hall (NHER 9907). This is described as being medieval in date in the NHER record, although the current Kirby Old Hall is post medieval in date, being constructed in 1604. Although it is feasible that a medieval gate parked the entrance into the medieval deer park and led to an earlier manorial building.
The aerial photograph evidence would suggest that the routeway leading from this gate cuts across an area of medieval fields and enclosures (NHER 52448), which may have been emparked with the creation of the medieval deer park, see record NHER 52448 for details. It is interesting and somewhat surprising to note that the earthworks relating to the road are relatively slight at the entrance to the park and the ‘White Gate’. As the line of the road continues to the north past the field boundary the earthworks become much more substantial, defined by ditches up to 2m across. Whilst it is possible that this is due to differential land use and conditions within the two fields affecting the survival of the earthworks, it is also feasible that the earthwork to the north re-use an earlier medieval droveway. The northern earthworks relating the Hall approach road are much more consistent with those medieval earthworks mapped to the east as part of NHER 52448.
S. Horlock (NMP), 03 November 2009.