NHER 2627 (Building record) - Oxburgh Hall

Oxburgh Hall.
Grade I Listed Building.
Magnificent moated hall of 1482 altered in 17th, 18th, & 19th centuries. Victorian garden features, dovecot, hydraulic ram. The well may have been excavated 1983.
For full details see (S1), (S2), and secondary file.
E. Rose (NAU), 9 March 1983.

Also see aerial photograph in (S3).
Photos, and press cuttings also in file.
The county number overlaps with that of the surrounding park, NHER 30479
For finds from nearby sites, and possibly from dredgings of moat see NHER 32085.

July 1951. Listed, Grade I.
Fortified Country House.
Licence to crenellate 1482. Extensive refurbishment during the late 18th and 19 centuries with the involvement of J.C. Buckler and A.W.N. Pugin. Brick with some stone dressings. Pantile roofs. Square moated site of four wings around a courtyard.
The main fabric of the north, the west and half the east wings is 15th century. The single storied south wing is of 1865 with an adjoining 18th century section to the west and a mainly early 19th century tower to the east. Mainly two storeys with attics.
North façade. Central three-storey 15th century gatehouse with a four-centred vaulted archway flanked by polygonal turrets decorated with moulded brick arched corbel tables. Western turret houses winding stair with small quatrefoil windows. Upper storeys of eastern turret have single light arched windows with rectangular hood moulds. Centre bay with a four-light stone first floor window with arched transoms and brick and stone relieving arches. Similar three-light second floor window just beneath a four-centred machicolation. Stepped crenallations. Early 18th century three-bay bridge with crenellated parapet crosses the moat. Flanking facades with 19th century Gothic fenestration, moulded brick arched corbel tables and crenellated parapets. Two crow-stepped attic gables with pairs of Cosseyware chimney shafts.
East façade. Northern half is 15th century. Southern half 18th and 19th century including the four-storey tower to south west corner. One 18th century semicircular-headed sash window with glazing bars. Otherwise 19th century Gothic including a stone-dressed two-storey canted bay with carving and two stone-dressed oriels. Arched corbel table. Two crow-stepped attic gables with single Cosseyware chimney shafts, gabled north wing and two gabled dormers.
Fabric of west façade almost entirely 15th century with Fenestration and decoration similar to that of east façade.
Interior. Adequately described in Oxburgh Hall, National Trust, 1982, except for the outstanding 15th century roofs over the northern half of the east wing and over the complete west wing. Fully moulded arch braced roofs with king posts rising from collars to braced ridge beam. Refurbishment of eastern wing attributable to J.C. Buckler. (S4).
Information derived from (S5).

September 1978. Recording of exposed features.
Brick foundations were revealed by a mechanical excavator cutting a new ha-ha on the southern side of the south arm of the moat. These were cleaned and recorded, revealing a brick culvert. The culvert is presumed to have been an outlet for the moat and was seen to terminate between two rectangular foundations set at right angles to it. Two splayed revetment walls were seen to butt against the foundations. A drawing printed in (S10) which is derived from a map of about 1725 depicts a rectangular arrangement of streams to the southwest of the hall. One of these streams ran north to south and terminated at the approximate location of the culvert. It is likely that the revetment walls held back the bank of this stream.
See (S11) and (S12) for further details.
H. Hamilton (NLA), 28 April 2009.

September 1978. Field Observation.
A lump of compacted oyster shells was located within 'The Wilderness' at Oxburgh Hall and photographed.
See (S13) for further details.
H. Hamilton (NLA), 28 April 2009.

May 1983. Excavation.
A brick-lined shaft revealed during refurbishment of the ground floor tower room was excavated. The shaft was dated to about 1480 and has been interpreted as either a well or a garderobe shaft. It contained a sealed deposit of pottery and architectural fragments inserted as fill in 1838.
See published article (S2) for further details. See also photographs (S6)-(S8). This work is also noted in local press article (S9).
The finds recovered were donated to the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2007.154).
H. Hamilton (NLA), 28 April 2009.

6 October 1993. NLA air photography.
Oxborough Hall and gardens clearly visible. Also earthworks of formal gardens still visible.
H. Clare (NLA), 1 February 2001.

December 1999. Earthwork Survey.
Survey of gardens to west and south of hall.
See NHER 30479 for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 10 February 2014.

2001-2005.
Investigation and analysis, measured survey (including REDM), photgraphic recording and documentary research for the National Trust. This work has concentrated on elucidating the original form and subsequent evolution of Oxburgh Hall. It has identified surviving late 15th Century roofs in the West range and the North half of the East range, and has allowed a fulled interpretation of the fabric and original function of the North, East and West ranges. Considerable further light has been shed on a series of major remodellings, notably in the late 17th and 18th Centuries and the early-mid 19th Century.

Tree-ring dating for the hall cannot securely date the construction of the building but it does suggest that the trusses of the west range roof date to between 1437 and 1463 but there is evidence that these trusses had been rearranged and could have originated from another building on site or elsewhere. The surviving trusses of the eastern range are clearly from a different timber source but did not yield a tree-ring date and this could support the notion that other parts of the hall date from the late 1470s or 1480s.

See report (S14) for further details. The results of this work are also summarised in (S15).
D. Holburn (HES), 14 October 2011.

28 June 2006. Casual find.
Medieval sherd.
See description in file.
A. Rogerson (NLA), 4 July 2006.

The five hundred year old oak gates are being removed and repaired at Oxburgh Hall, after damage was caused by weather last year. The gates were replaced on February 21st but more work on the gates is planned. The gates are a part of the original building and were finished in 1482.
See (S16) for further details.
M. Langham-Lopez (HES), 7 February 2013.

July 2014. Portable XRF Analysis.
Ninety-one panes of window glass analysed in situ using portable X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF).
Slightly more than half of the glass belongs to a type originally produced before the 18th century. Most of the remaining glass would however have been made in the 19th or 20th centuries.
A consideration of the arrangement and distribution of the glass suggests that most of the windows were created in the 19th century.
See report (S17) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 22 August 2019.

February 2016. Watching Brief.
Monitoring of groundworks associated with installation of new ducting for fibre optic IT cables.
The trenches excavated within the courtyard of Oxburgh Hall revealed two post-medieval covered red brick drains. One was sealed by a layer of chalk and they were both overlain by a 0.55m deep probable make-up deposit that lay beneath the modern gravel surface.
No finds were recovered.
See report (S18) for further details.
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2017.563).
P. Watkins (HES), 24 April 2024.

January 2020. Watching Brief.
Maintained during installation of new drainage gullies within gravelled area of courtyard, close to main entrance.
The two small trenches excavated revealed a high degree of modern truncation, with the area shown to have been previously disturbed by pre-existing drainage gullies and two other modern service trenches. The only deposit of note was a small area of compacted chalk, interpreted as a remnant of an earlier courtyard surface.
No finds were recovered.
See report (S19) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 24 April 2024.