NHER 33465 (Designed Landscape record) - Vicarage Park

Vicarage Park.
(S1) lists as Grade Two Star with regional importance.
1678 curtilage of vicarage was eight acres extending into Scarning; this was not the same as the glebe lands. Former Rectory demolished 1695 and 1722 and materials used to repair the Vicarage. In 1706 a garden within the moat is mentioned with orchard to east. House extended 1750 and rebuilt 1807. The Vicar held 15 acres but by 1815 he held 100. 70 acres were planted as parkland with walks to the church and to the southwest. Tree belts planted 1838 and water course straightened 1844. House extended 1852. Beech hedges planted within moat by 1889. Part of area now built over, part a public open space, part private gardens.
See (S1).

In addition it was stated by [1] in a lecture that a vista existed crossing the entrance drive to give a view north to the church and south to the meadows; the latter survives but the view to the church is blocked by houses and leylandii.
E. Rose (NLA), 25 February 1998.

December 2008.
Verbal communication from [2] states that the current Rectory was once part of Vicarage park, and that the vicarage was used as a Red Cross hospital during the First World War. Trenches were dug in the grounds by patients to test their health. Some have been filled in and some are extant.
A large, shallow-sided ditch runs the length of the garden, a distance of approximately 70m, although much is obscured by a laurel hedge. It is truncated at its southern end by a modern pond, installed in the 1990s. The trench is 4-4.3m in width along its whole length, and corresponds to a boundary clearly marked on the 1st edition Ordnance survey map.
The garden was levelled in 1990 to form a croquet lawn, but five shallow depressions are still clearly visible in the lawn. All are 2 meters in width and are uniformly round. Their similarities in shape and size suggest they are probably contemporary. Three are located to the north of the garden, parallel to the large ditch, with a further two in the centre of the south lawn.
H. White (NLA), 3 February 2009.

March 2024. Wendling Beck and Fransham Aerial Investigation and Mapping (AIM) Project.
A variety of features were identified as earthworks and cropmarks on the consulted aerial photographs (S2-S7) and visualised lidar data (S8).
Features relating to the park itself include a curved bank and ditch at the northern edge of the park (centred at TF 9842 1327), which enclosed a copse of trees and corresponds with a boundary depicted on the Ordnance Survey 1st edition 6 inch map (S9). Visible as an earthwork on 1940s aerial photographs (S2), it is not clear from later aerial photographs or visualised lidar data (S8) whether it still survives.
Further south are two linear features (at TF 9856 1298 and TF 9859 1287). The northernmost corresponds to a track depicted on the Ordnance Survey 1st edition 6 inch map (S9); the southernmost is not shown on the map but fits the same pattern of enclosure and is probably a former post medieval field boundary. Again visible as earthworks (probably) on 1940s aerial photographs (S2-S3), more recent aerial photographs (such as S10) and visualised lidar data (from a survey flown in 2017, S8) show that while some elements have been levelled and perhaps destroyed by a housing development, other elements appear to still survive as earthworks; the survival of some elements is uncertain.
Other features relating to the park have been recorded individually, comprising tree rings (NHER 2881, 68078-68081), possible garden features (NHER 68073), a possible track or field boundary (possibly the remains of a tree-lined walk, NHER 68074), and a rectilinear pond and/or quarry pit (NHER 68075). Probable remnants of the pre-park landscape are also recorded separately, including earthworks relating to the moated site (NHER 68076) and areas of possible ridge and furrow (NHER 2864 and 68077).
It was not possible to identify the earthworks described above as relating to the First World War use of the vicarage, and within the garden of the current rectory, in part because the description above is unclear about their location..
S. Tremlett (Norfolk Historic Environment Service), 7 March 2024.