Monument record CUL 022 - Culford Park; Culford School

Landscape Park listed by English Heritage as of special interest:- Terraced gardens c. 2ha, pleasure grounds c. 2ha, park c. 200ha, walled gardens c. 4ha. Plan for Culford by Thomas Wright 1742 for Lord Cornwallis shows Avenue to W of house, moated garden to S (CUL 034) and lake (CUL 035, dug 1795) and canal to S (S2). Park from 1792 by Humphry Repton, terrace garden early and later C19. C19 ornamented & balustraded walls and lawns. Specimen trees, walk, shrubbery, fernery (outdoor), well wooded park. Serpentine Lake altered by Repton from existing river (note Wright's map above). Arched dam carries drive. Balustraded bridge, flanked by urns, was designed by Samuel Wyatt in 1800, finished in 1803, and is earliest [circa 1803-4] tubular iron bridge in the world (Listed Grade I)(S3)(S4)(R6). Flanking tree belts. Remains of avenue/s. N wood and two 12 acre coverts form belt on N side. Early C19 park gates. Originally 3 walled gardens, two now cleared and converted to tennis courts & hockey pitches. Proposals by Repton for village. Red book 1792; listed in Repton's sketches 1794, further details in (S1)(R1)-(R7).
Shown on Hodskinson's 1783 map, OS 1st edition and Tithe map (1839). For Hall see CUL 021.
Boundary amended (still wrong - EM) after English Heritage map (S1) in October 1995.
For ice-house see CUL 020.
For photographs in Suffolk Industrial Archaeological Newsletter see (S6).
For map of Park in 1778, see (S7).

January 2020. Breckland National Mapping Programme.
Multiple multiperiod features have been mapped form aerial photographs and visualised lidar data within Culford parks boundary. The features have been recorded as individual records rather than as part of the overall Culford park record (CUL 022). The mapped features include: a large area of medieval to post medieval ridge and furrow (CUL 079), possible Second World War military training features (CUL 078, CUL 080 and CUL 083), a large possible prehistoric or post medieval oval enclosure (CUL 052), part of a medieval causewayed moat (CUL 034) and an undated ring ditch (CUL 084). No park and gardens features were mapped form the aerial sources consulted by the survey apart from earthworks relating to a former post medieval Ice House (CUL 020). However, a number of banks and ditches which may have related to post medieval boundaries or post medieval park and gardens features (CUL 082 CUL 082 and CUL 085) have been recourded. Some of the parkland features such as the walled garden, bridges and lakes were seen on aerial photographs but have not been mapped by this survey as they fall outside of the scope of this survey and the features have been mapped in good detail on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map (S9).
J.Powell (Norfolk Historic Environment Service), 27th January 2020.