NHER 54810 (Designed Landscape record) - Lopham Grove and Little Wood

Earthwork survey.
Lopham Grove wood contains few internal earthworks; the only distinct feature is a large irregular pit near the eastern edge of the wood connected to a few drainage ditches. These ditches are probably of 19th century date. The north western and eastern sides of the wood are lined with a fairly diffuse but notable bank. The southern margin has a particularly post-medieval looking bank, where a 2.9m hornbeam pollard is present. The western boundary of Lopham Grove has no bank at all, just a field ditch, which is evidently fairly recent. Little Wood contains more striking earthworks. The parish boundary runs through the eastern half of Little Wood and is denoted by a substantial ditch and lynchet, which vaguely resembles a boundary bank. This ditch turns south in the middle of the wood following the parish boundary, the lynchet continues north west. The field boundaries and earthworks suggest that Lopham Grove and Little Wood were once one large wood. The intervening area was presumably grubbed out in stages during 17th and 18th century; this is presumably associated with the construction of Wood House, which was located in the south west of Lopham Grove. Two 18th century maps indicate that Lopham Grove and Little Wood were during the 17th century a single large wood comprising both woods and the fields between. This was grubbed out by the early 18th century but later replanted by the early 19th century.
C. Goodwin (NLA), 26 August 2010.