7^4 



DEER AND DEER PARKS. 



Ch. V. 



NORFOLK. 



Although this flat and comparatively 

 uninteresting county is not particularly 

 well-adapted for deer parks, yet several 

 have existed within its extensive limits 

 from the very earliest topographical in- 

 formation which we possess. One at least 

 is mentioned in the Domesday Survey, at 

 Coteseia, the modern Costessey or Cossey, 

 the old Jerningham seat near Norwich ; 

 at the time of the Conquest the property 

 of Alan Earl of Moretaine, and which had 

 belonged to ' Guert,' in the Confessor's 

 days. Here, ' one park with beasts,' oc- 

 curs among the profits of the manor. Cos- 

 sey has. .been, long disparked, but it re- 

 mained a park in the Elizabethan period, 

 ' m circuit two miles or thereabouts,' in 

 the possession of the Lady Jerningham, 

 as appears by the Return of ' the Names 

 of Parks keeping deer within the County of 

 Norfolk,' dated in April 1581, and pre- 

 served ia the State Paper Office.' The 

 ' Royal parks at this period were Dereham 

 and Shipdham, in the .hundred of Mit- 

 forde, each two miles in circuit, and Hen- 

 ingeham,ya. that of Holt, but one mile in 

 circumference. Shipdham had formerly 

 belonged to the See of Ely. The old 

 park called Little Haw, and the new park 

 called West Haw, are mentioned as early 

 as 1277. In the 3rd of Elizabeth, and 

 again in the 26th of the same reign, this 

 park was granted to theWodehouse family, 

 ' with the deer in the park,' and about 1585 

 it was conveyed tp Sir Thomas Gaudy.^ 



63- 



' S. P. O. Domestic, Eljz. vol. exlyiii. No. 



Taking a topographical view of the 

 parks of this county, we have to the east 

 of Norwich the hundreds of Tunsted, Hap- 

 ping, West and East Elegg, Blofeld, 

 Claveringe, and Loddon. No ancient 

 parks appear in this district; but there 

 were deer at Langley, in the hundred of 

 Loddon, the seat of Sir Thomas Beau- 

 champ Proctor, Bart., in 1781, and there 

 is a small modern park at Rackheath, a 

 few miles to the east of Norwich, belong- 

 ing to Sir Henry Stracey, Bart., enclosed 

 about the year 1854. 



To the north of the county town are the 

 hundreds of Holt, North and South Er- 

 pingham, Hayneford, and Taverham. in 

 the first of these divisions is the large 

 park of Melton-Constable, the ancient seat 

 of the Astleys, now Lords Hastings. It 

 is a park of 700 acres, with herds of 80 

 red-deer and 180 fallow. This park is 

 said to be ancient, though not included in 

 the Return of 1581. 



At Thornage in the same hundred, there 

 was, however, at that period a park, now 

 long disused, belonging to Sir William 

 Butts, Knight, one mile and a half in cir^ 

 cuit ; and at Bayfield, the seat of Mr. 

 Joddrell, a park is mentioned as existing 

 in 1781;= In the hundred of North Er- 

 pingham, is Felbrigg, once the seat of the 

 Windham family, one of the most beautiful 

 situations in Norfolk. There were deer 

 here in 1781, and it occurs among the 

 parks of the county in 1581. It then be- 



' History and Antiquities of Norfolk, 1781, 

 vol. viii. p. 60. 



' Hist, of Norfolk, vol. vii. p. 8. 



