Mid- to late-C18 landscaped park with gardens and pleasure grounds laid out in the C19 and early C20.
LOCATION, SETTING, LANDFORM, BOUNDARIES AND AREA
Earlham Park is situated to the north of the University of East Anglia on rising ground above the river with the land sloping away to the west. It covers an area of approximately 35 hectares. The park is bounded to the north by Watton Road, to the east by University Drive which follows quite closely the line of the original park boundary, to the south by a C19 shelter belt (screening it from the campus); and to the west by the C18 plantations The Heronry and Violet Grove.
ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES
Three carriage drives to Earlham Hall are shown on the 1829 estate plan. The drive from Bluebell Road to the south-east has left no discernible trace, whilst the northern drive from Watton Road survives in earthwork form, leaving the lime avenue from the north-east off Watton Road as the only surviving entrance. PRINCIPAL BUILDING
Earlham Hall (Grade II*-listed) is a large house of flint and red brick with an approximately H-shaped plan. It has a late-C16 core that was extended and remodelled in the C17, C18 and early C20. Each elevation subsequently has a different architectural character. The north entrance front is Georgian and has three bays with a pedimented doorcase, deeply recessed by two projecting wings. The south garden front is C17 and has five bays flanked by additional late-C18 canted bays, the whole ornamented by three shaped gables added in 1910 by the Norwich-based architect Edward Boardman. Attached to the east are service buildings including a former coach house and a donkey engine house. ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS
The gardens consist of lawns to the south and west with specimen trees, including cedars, and areas of shrubbery consisting of oaks, yews, larch and flowering trees of C19 and C20 date. The whole is bounded on the west and south by a substantial ha-ha comprising a deep ditch, now overgrown, probably of early- to mid-C18 date. The lawns to the south-west of the Hall contain earthworks of a formal garden. These represent the edges of areas levelled to provide flat space for lawns or parterres, possibly a raised terrace carrying a path, and the boundary of a ‘wilderness’ or ornamental shrubbery shown on Prideaux’s picture. The earthwork banks represent the terrace walks around its margins. Whilst this area does not now include trees of any great antiquity, there are some fine specimens of C19 and early-C20 date, such as beeches, oaks, sycamore, ash and lime. A circuit path, shown on the 1829 map, winds its way through the gardens from the south front of the Hall, up to the wilderness in the north-west, then follows the western and southern edge of the ha-ha before heading northwards through the shrubbery to the south-east corner of the lawn.
To the south-east of the Hall is the rock garden laid out around 1914 using large blocks of Welsh limestone buried deeply in the ground forming a network of paths. It was planted with a multitude of rock plants but has now become shaded by dark green evergreen shrubs, including yew and laurel. To the north-west is the large rose garden with quarter-circle flower beds bordered by paths of narrow brick with grass borders. The garden is sunk around half a metre below ground level and is reached by semicircular steps in the north-east and north-west corners. A broad grass walk and herbaceous border separates it from the hedge marking the southern boundary of the kitchen garden. The Dutch Garden, lying immediately to the south-east of the Hall, was created around the late C19 within three-sided, red brick garden walls of probable C18 date (Grade II-listed). It is a formal parterre with box-edged beds surrounded by gravel paths.
PARK
The Hall is situated towards the north-eastern corner of the park which is therefore mostly laid out to the south and west. The park is interspersed with trees, such as beech, ash, horse chestnut and lime, mostly late-C18 and C19 in date, with the exception of the relict hedgerow oaks. The most striking example is a former pollarded oak with a girth of 6.7m, suggesting it was planted in the later Middle Ages. A series of earthworks mark former field boundaries shown on the 1829 map and the former position of avenues that were probably planted in the late C18 or early C19 (since removed). The park also contains two hollow ways of probable medieval origin, one running north-south through the south of the park, aligned on the Hall, and another running across the north-west of the park.
An C18 red brick dovecote (listed Grade II) with a square plan and shingled, pyramidal roof stands in the north-west corner of the park. It was no doubt positioned within view of Watton Road to indicate the status of the inhabitants of Earlham Hall. Immediately to the north of the dovecote are the remains of a Spigot Mortar emplacement dating from 1940, set into an earthen bank to cover the strategically important bridge across the River Yare. The remains comprise a concrete plinth with an embedded steel mount. The pit dug around the plinth, in which the operators would have sat, has been infilled. A car park occupies the north-east corner of the park.
KITCHEN GARDEN
The large kitchen garden, shown on the 1829 plan, is positioned to the north-east of the Hall. It has a rectangular plan, the irregular south wall having been realigned in the early C20 and now consisting of yew. The northern boundary and short stretches of the east and west sides are defined by a low red brick wall laid in Flemish Garden bond with external pilasters. The map regression shows that it was divided into four by paths and had free-standing glasshouses in the southern half but these have since been removed and the garden itself is overgrown and no longer in production.