By Brilliana Harley, Senior Heritage and Landscape Consultant.
Echoes of History: The Evolution of Oxburgh's Gardens
The gardens at Oxburgh Estate are a richly layered designed landscape, enhancing the setting of the 15th-century Oxburgh Hall while holding valuable stories of their own. Some themes become apparent upon a single visit, while others reveal themselves through closer inspection, archival study, and archaeological analysis.
The piecemeal garden developments reflect the fluctuating fortunes of the Bedingfeld family, who resided at Oxburgh for six centuries and retain a flat on site. The family endured strict penalties as a Catholic recusant family and suffered as Royalists during the Civil War. These tumultuous times were interspersed with periods of royal favour, a baronetcy, and injections of money through marriages and inheritance. The landscape developments mirror the family's political status, directly associated with its Catholicism.
Stephen Wass of Polyolbion Archaeology conducted research and analysis for the CMP, focusing on the archaeology of lost features within the gardens. To the casual visitor, the archaeological layering of the landscape to the south of the Hall is not immediately apparent. Wass’ earthwork survey and study of historic maps and LiDAR provided the first focused attempt to unravel the complex layers of landscaping in this location. Findings included curious, partially levelled earthworks comprising a circular roundel and a large quadripartite enclosure, representing an aborted attempt to create a formal garden in the 18th century. Evidence of a carriage drive to the south of the Hall, abandoned due to boggy ground, was also discovered.
While the Recusancy Acts of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries did not entirely stifle landscape developments, they may have limited the scale or extent of changes, characterised by a piecemeal quality over this period. The Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 coincided with major works and restoration of the landscape by Henry Bedingfeld and Margaret Paston, including the construction of the chapel, celebrating new Catholic liberties.
Water's Whisper: The Lifeblood of Oxburgh's Landscape
Water has long been a constant at Oxburgh, whether surrounding the Hall in the geometric form of the 15th-century moat or veining through ornamental woodlands as meandering waterways and cascading falls. The remaining watercourses are survivors of a more complex ornamental and productive landscape, providing evidence of a carefully constructed water management system. Water was fundamental within the wider estate landscape, powering mills, watering livestock, and ferrying goods.
The earliest evidence of water being controlled within the landscape is shown in the surface irregularities found to the southwest of the Hall, associated with the potential site of former swan pens. Historic 18th-century maps illuminate the form of these features.
Swan pens were typically found at high-status medieval castles and manors, as well as monastic sites. Swans, royal birds, could be granted to certain individuals who marked their swans to show ownership. Records indicate a swan mark in Bedingfeld ownership in the early 17th century. At Oxburgh, the swan pens appear to have formed part of elaborate water gardens to the southwest of the Hall, although their misalignment with the axis of the Hall and moat suggests they may be earlier, pre-15th-century medieval features. The swan pens served both a utilitarian function, rearing swans for food, and providing an ornamental water feature within the immediate setting of the Hall.
The late 15th-century construction of the Hall was accompanied by the laying out of the geometric moat, the sole survivor of any 15th-century garden, providing a strikingly formal setting for the Hall. The nature of the wider 15th-century landscape remains a mystery.
The laying out of ornamental water gardens in the 17th century reused elements of the earlier medieval landscape, including the swan pens. The focal point of this phase of landscaping was the formal Broad Water Canal, a grand body of water extending east to west parallel with the moat.
Late 18th and 19th-century improvements reused this formal feature in a more naturalised, serpentine form, reflecting the popularity of the picturesque movement. A section of this canal, in its later organic arrangement, remains in the 19th-century woodland to the southeast of the Hall. This ornamental woodland, My Lady’s Wood, is ribboned with waterways featuring walks and summerhouses along their peripheries.
“Oxburgh Estate is of particular interest given the longevity of family involvement and accumulation of landscape interventions over many centuries. Unravelling the history of this distinctive site is essential in underpinning its future restoration, guiding sensitive new development, and informing future planning strategies.”
Expertise in Historic Landscape Design
The Purcell heritage consultancy team has in-house expertise oriented around historic designed landscapes. The team prepares conservation management plans for country estates and urban spaces such as parks and cemeteries.
Working closely with landscape architects we propose landscape and public realm improvements to Registered Parks and Gardens, Scheduled Monuments, and Conservation Areas, providing heritage advice, liaising with stakeholders on consents, and writing supporting heritage statements.
Pictures
Top, view of Oxburgh Hall framed by a mature beech tree from My Lady’s Wood'
Below, survey of the Oxburgh Estate dating to 1725 showing a curious canal arrangement to the south-west of the Hall (incorporating swan pens) and the formal Broad Water Canal in the Walks to the south. Map copyright National Trust archives/
Below, view of Oxburgh from the west showing the geometric form of the moat
Bottom, photograph showing the 19th century picturesque woodland, My Lady’s Wood, with a serpentine path alongside a waterway, picture copyright National Trust archives photograph showing the 19th century picturesque woodland, My Lady’s Wood, with a serpentine path alongside a waterway, picture copyright National Trust archives