NHER 8172 (Building record) - Rackheath Hall

July 1977. Visit.
Large mansion.
Three storeys, ground floor rusticated; nine bays, central bay projecting slightly and giant Ionic pilasters at corners. Roof balustrade with urns. First floor windows have consoles and second floor, stone frames, smaller in size. Tuscan porch with wooden balustrade, and at side porte-cochere in same style with wood and glass roof. In side walls a single off centre pilaster. Architecture excellent, but condition only fair now - beginning to decay, especially the porches.
Used as an antique shop.
E. Rose (NAU) 20 July 1977.

(S1) dates at 1820, on site of older hall, refers to story which he doubts of a Queen Anne house being burnt down in 1745. States there are older beams inside.
1852-4 according to (S2) which gives detailed description of main west and south facades only (S3), (S4), (S5), (S6) in file.

June 1998. Hall revisited when under restoration and new ownership.
The building is J-shaped with the main façade in the west and a longer south wing than north wing. The exterior as described above wraps round these with balustrading hiding the roofs. One drainpipe does indeed bear the date 1852. The internal rooms of the south wing have fine Adam style plaster mouldings. The courtyard faces of the walls have two storey extensions; the rear wall of the main block, above these, has a large arched window. The rear wall of the south wing has a vertical join near a stack towards the west, with red brick to the east and white or painted brick to the east. The extensions are of red brick with horizontal skintlings and two storeys of lunettes - that behind the main block is now shown to be the same, now that 19th century additions have gone.
However inside the south wing extension, behind panelling, a narrow passage has been revealed from the main doorway. Inside the passage, wall arcading does not line up with the external lunettes but would have cut across them.
All the work visible is post 1780 but the courtyard extensions and the plaster mouldings suit Cozens-Hardy's date of 1820 far better than the 1850s. Could the 1852 works simply have been the wrap-around façade?
The passage is no doubt for servants but the misplaced arcading is hard to explain.
E. Rose (NLA) 26 June 1998.

August 1999. Excavation
Community excavation in the gardens of Rackheath Hall. Part of a summer activity week for 8-13 year olds organised by Broadland District Council and run in conjunction with Norfolk Archaeological Unit (NAU). Three trenches were excavated:
Trench 1 revealed tree holes and 1930s gravel road and modern middens of building debris.
Trench 2 contained a circular pit, possibly a flowerbed.
Trench 3 was blank.
See newspaper article (S9) for further details.
C. Meckseper (NAU) 1 September 1999.

Before June 2002.
Found in flower bay at Rackheath Hall, in soil taken from around Rackheath Hall, from Pulls Ferry Lane (Norwich Cathedral) and from garden of a house on Green Lane East, Rackheath (TG 28727 12240 centred).
Fitzwilliam Identified by M. Allen.
Medieval coin of William I.
K. Hinds (NLA), 5 August 2002.

A hall is marked here on the Mousehold Map of 1588; see NHER 30518.
E. Rose (NLA), 13 March 2004.

(S8) notes a date of 1777 on a first floor window head and on a tiebeam. The 19th century staircase window incorporates reused stained glass of 17th century type. He believes the work of the 1850s was restricted to the exterior, the panelling, extending the staircase hall and altering fireplaces. The work dated above as after 1780 and before 1820 could well be as early as 1777 and this may connect with the story of the hall burnt down in the 1740s.
E. Rose (NLA) 18 May 2005.