Gaywood
The manor of Gaywood was the cradle of Lynn: this much is clear from ancient sources and from the ecclesiastical parish boundary of the town previous to 1990, which followed the town perimeter and suggested that both town and its parish had been carved at an early date out of the larger parish and manor of Gaywood.
The Gaywood estate as taken over by the Borough of King’s Lynn in 1935 therefore represented the last point in the development of that early manor; the survival of many features from the later period of the estate, centred on the Hall as the home of the Gaywood branch of the Bagge family, has left a historic manorial landscape which deserves preservation. This landscape is a vital visual embodiment of Gaywood’s long history as a village separate from the younger town which has outgrown and surrounded its parent.
Many of the relevant features have been included in this draft Local List, but the panel strongly recommended that the following area be regarded as a historic entity and be considered for conservation area status. This area consists of the western end of Gayton road up to Park Cottages on the northern side and up to The Wildfowler on the east; to the south it should include the churchyard, old and new rectory grounds and Church Belt, the approaches to Gaywood Hall (Cemetery Drive and Gaywood Hall Drive) and Gaywood Hall itself including its grounds.
Historical and potential archaeological importance of Gaywood: Recent archaeology has suggested that the earliest focus of habitation in Gaywood during the middle Saxon era was some way up Wootton Road, well north of the present centre where Wootton Road joins Lynn and Gayton Roads and away from the area outlined above. This early focus has been seen as a coastal development from an important earlier settlement on the hill at Bawsey (see ARJ Hutcheson, ‘The Origins of King’s Lynn? Control of wealth on the Wash prior to the Norman Conquest’ Medieval Archaeology 50 no. 1 (November 2006) pp 71–104).
If this is the case, the shifting of the manorial focus to its present site suggests a planned move late in the Anglo-Saxon period or perhaps more likely after the Norman Conquest. Examination of the Hall area shows a close relationship between the heart of the manorial demesne, where the present Hall stands on the site of the medieval Bishop’s Palace, and the church and glebeland, represented now by church, churchyard , rectory grounds and the land now occupied by the modern Church Rooms. These ecclesiastical parcels can be seen on the 1810 Enclosure map to total together about 6 acres; the same total is quoted in the Gaywood Dragge or Terrier [manorial land survey] in 1487 for ‘the Church of Gaywood and the pasture next together with ye Rectorie conteyning in the whole vj acres of land’, suggesting continuity of church ownership. The six acres ran right up to the present Gaywood Hall Drive and the geographical relationship is so close as to suggest deliberate association at an early date. It could be related to the dedication of the church to St Faith: such dedications are frequently associated with a known 12th-century foundation date and/or, as at Gaywood, surviving 12th-century architectural features.
An Episcopal palace was built approximately on the site of the present Hall in the time of Bishop John de Grey (1200–1214), who was responsible in 1205 for the obtaining of Lynn’s first town charter. It is known that several monarchs were entertained here by the Bishops from King John in 1205 up to Edward III. In 1388, Bishop Henry Despenser had licence from Richard II to fortify the palace (Blomefield’s History of Norfolk Vol 8) and the Hall site and archaeological potential of its grounds were closely examined in a case made for scheduling for which application was made in 2012. Roger Hitchcock’s MS history of Gaywood states: ‘Shortly before the sale to Sir Cyril Wyche, Francis Thoresby erected a new Manor House as appears by the old title deeds. In a MS account of the Manor written about this time mention is made of the palace and the author adds ‘But ye ruines of itt now are hardly to be seen’. That Hall is thought to have been substantially rebuilt in the 1740s: Thomas Martin’s notes on Norfolk churches and parishes c.1750 calls it: ‘A new building formerly one of the palaces of the Bishop of Norwich. It is moated round doubly, a summerhouse in the trunk of a large oaken tree.’ (Norfolk Record Office Rye MSS). A sketch of this building recently brought to light in private hands suggests from the shape of the building that this was a remodelling rather than a complete rebuild. A map of part of the estate in Norfolk Record Office(NRO BL 14127 map shows both the moats which once surrounded the Bishop’s Palace and which are known from the 1487 Terrier [manorial land survey]. An estate map of 1789 (NRO BL 1465) and the Gaywood Tithe map of 1838 (NRO DN TA 137) show that the outer moat had gone by 1789, leaving only the northern section which forms the present pond; Richard Bagge filled the inner moat in when he built the present Hall in 1851. The underground archaeology of the preceding Bishop’s palace was cursorily explored in 1985 in a limited area in the Hall grounds and apart from inconclusive geophysical study the rest remains unexplored. The park laid out to the west and south on old demesne land disappeared under the post-1935 Gaywood Park housing estate after purchase of the estate by the local authority in 1935 although a few traces are still visible.
This sale has governed the redevelopment pattern but has also led to a fortuitous preservation in local authority hands of much at the centre, despite the redevelopment of the wider Park. Their retention of the long and broad green area and its planting between the Hall and Gayton Road has played a big role in preserving the setting of, e.g. the farmworkers’ homes at Cottage Row and the Lodge at the end of Gaywood Hall Drive. The use until 2011 of the kitchen garden as the Borough nurseries has preserved that garden’s original high wall. That the field once bordering the ‘back drive’ to the Hall (Cemetery Drive) has become the Gayton Road Cemetery has retained the sense of openness on that side.
The unlisted Hall itself at the centre and its unprotected grounds are vulnerable to unsympathetic development. The trees in the grounds and outside trees form an unexpectedly vital part of this still strongly manorial landscape, recognised in 2005 as a valuable wildlife habitat, and their strong vital visual function might perhaps only be fully appreciated should they be lost to development.
Sources:
Gaywood Dragge, Norfolk Archaeology (1930) [1486 Terrier]
Blomefield’s History of Norfolk Vol 8 [Blomefield]
Gaywood Enclosure Map and Award 1810 [1810]
Gaywood Title Map 1838 [1838]
Ordnance Survey 1907 [OS 1907]
Roger Hitchcock: MS history of Gaywood, incorporating correspondence with Mrs Hutt (granddaughter of Richard Bagge (1810–1891) builder of Gaywood Hall) penes St Faith’s Church Gaywood [Hitchcock or Mrs Hutt as appropriate]
Anthony Avis Gaywood: A Norfolk Village Childhood (eyewitness account privately published 1994) [Avis 1994]
Anthony Avis Gaywood Past: Some Historical Notes (privately published 1999) [Avis 1999]
