Staverton Park

Summary

Staverton Park, first referenced in 1268-1269 in an account roll of Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk.

Reasons for Designation

Staverton Deer Park, dating to 1268 or earlier is registered at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

Historic interest:

* as an early and rare surviving example of a medieval deer park unencumbered by later changes;
* for its unusual function, originating as a shared resource, apparently independent of a large country house;
* for its continued use as a deer park, managed in much the same way for over 700 years;
* for the survival of woodland pasture habitat and the density, character and age of veteran trees, many of which are more than 400 years old and are pollards last cut in the C18;
* for its historic and cultural significance from at least the C13 to the present day.

Group value:

* for the strong group value the park holds with the scheduled monument of Cumberland’s Mount which is believed to have had a specialist function in deer management.

History

In 1086 the Domesday Book mentions a place called Stauertuna or Stauertona, which was a manor with a church and woodland for 30 pigs, held by Hubert de Montchensy as a tenant of Robert Malet, the Lord of Eye. In 1199 Staverton was granted by Hubert de Montchensy to Hugh Bigod, son of Roger, Earl of Norfolk.

An account roll of Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, dated 1268/69, is the first reference to a park at Staverton. Further reference is made in 1304 when Roger Bigod, by then also Marshall of England, received a request from the King ‘…The King needs timber for…. repairing his mills at Orford…, he requests the earl to oblige him with a grant at the earls pleasure of timber… in the earls park of Staverton for the said mills’. An inventory of 1307 records Roger Bigod as having a 'manor, including a park, herbage at Olddemor and Chisfen, a fishery in the pond (stago) and a custom called ‘bedelrye’ at Michaelmas worth 0s’. In 1310 the estate was granted to Thomas of Brotherton, a younger son of King Edward I who was created Earl of Norfolk in 1312 and it stayed with his descendants into the C16.

It is thought that the park may have been affected by the Peasants' Revolt in 1381 when it is recorded that rioters ‘broke the houses of John Staverton of Eyk at Eyk and … tore open and there likewise broke the various boxes of the said John Staverton and feloniously carried away the written letters with other munitions of the said John to the detriment of the said John Staverton….’ . John de Staverton was an unpopular ‘king’s clerk’, who was one of those appointed to oversee the property forfeitures of the rebels in the wake of the uprising. An inventory of William de Ufford, Earl of Suffolk in 1382 records ‘a manor including a park without deer, now greatly broken down, grazing at Oldmore and Chyfen’.

Inheritance passed the park to Margaret, Countess of Norfolk and on her death in 1399 passed to her grandson John de Mowbray and descent continued through the Mowbray and Howard Dukes of Norfolk until 1529 when it was sold to Butley Priory for £240. When the priory was dissolved in 1538 the lands reverted to the Duke of Norfolk until 1572 when it became Crown property.

In September 1528, the park was the setting for a ‘silvan’ when Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and his wife Mary Tudor, the Dowager Queen of France, and their entourage came to Staverton, to hunt foxes and dine beneath the oaks, being entertained with plays, games, and diversions.

A portion of the 21 year Crown lease of the manor of Staverton with its demesne lands and warren was assigned in 1599 by Thomas Havers of Thelverton in Norfolk to Michael Stanhope esq of Sudbourne, groom of the Privy Chamber to Queen Elizabeth. By 1600 the park, was in the tenure of John Talbot of Wantisden Hall. The park remained in the ownership of Sir Michael Stanhope’s family until 1669 when George, 9th Lord Berkeley sold to Henry Wood of Loudham Hall, Suffolk. Stanhope commissioned two volumes of maps of his estate in 1600-1601 from the finest cartographer of that time, John Norden. His map of the park gives a detailed impression of the distribution of the trees and open spaces within it. It also indicates that the park was then tenanted by John Talbot of nearby Wantisden Hall.

In 1783 ‘Stavender Park’ is marked on Joseph Hodskinsons Map of Suffolk. By 1800 the park was sold to Edward Lees of Croxton Park, Cambridgeshire and passed in 1803 to his son-in-law Nathaniel Barnardiston of The Ryes, Great Henny, Essex, who commissioned a map of the Wantisden Hall estate, including Staverton Park, from the cartographer Isaac Johnson of Woodbridge in 1805, noting Jonathan Kerr as the occupier. The tithe apportionment and map show Staverton Park, The Thicks and Little Staverton.

Within the northern half of the park is a crescentic earthwork comprising a broad bank, external ditch and a central entrance causeway on the south side, marked by a gap in the centre of the inner bank and a corresponding causeway across the ditch (scheduled monument, National Heritage List for England (NHLE) entry 1011346). It was partially excavated in 1910 by H St George Gray which produced evidence of medieval occupation with pottery, chiefly of C12 and C13 century date, found in deposits within the enclosure and underlying the bank and, more recently, by fieldwalking of the interior.

Between 2014 and 2022 Staverton Park was one of the key locations (including the ‘treasure tree’ and Thicks Cottage) of the BBC series ‘The Detectorists’.

Details

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING: the park is bounded on the south side by the B1084 with a gentle rise towards the centre of the park, the land then slopes gently on its northern boundary where it borders wet pasture or fens flanking the east flowing Butley River. Vestiges of the park pale boundary bank are evident along the west and southern sides with substantial earthwork banks more clearly evident on the eastern side where they survive up to 2m high and 7-8m wide. There are ancient trees growing on the crest of the bank on the eastern side. The park covers an area of approximately 409 acres (164 hectares) and spans two parishes Wantisden and Eyke and borders that of Butley to the east.

ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES: the main entrance is on the north side via a private road leading to Shepherds Cottage with a second entrance from the south, just east of Thicks Cottage. Historically, certainly on Isaac Johnson’s map of Staverton Park dated 1805, two paths are marked, one from Wantisden to Woodbridge, the other from Wantisden to Butley Abbey. Environment Agency LIDAR imagery shows traces of these routes surviving in the current footpath network crossing the oak woodland.

PRINCIPAL BUILDING: Staverton Park is unusual, it has always been a remote deer park, and has no clear attachment to any particular house. The fact that the Eyke/Wantisden parish boundary runs through the park suggests it may have originated as a shared resource. Woodland is rare in this part of Suffolk at the time of the Domesday survey so it is likely the reference to a ‘wood for 30 pigs’ equates to woodland in the area of Staverton Park. The poor sandy soil (Suffolk Sandlings) with no podzol formation, indicates more or less continuous tree cover since ‘wildwood’ times (Farjon 2017).

There are two buildings within the park, Shepherds Cottage which is located in the north-east corner (now extended and used as an events venue) and Thicks Cottage in the south-east corner which has been repaired after being gutted by fire in 2021. The cottages were not evident on Johnson's map of 1805 but both are depicted on the 1881 (OS map). They appear to have acted as Lodges covering the main entrances at least from the mid-late-C19.

THE PARK: Staverton Park is the name given to the wider deer park but the area can be subdivided into six key features. Staverton Park is specifically the name for the central area of ancient oak pollards, bordering this on the north-west corner is a deer enclosure containing the scheduled earthwork remains of ‘Cumberlands Mount’ (also known as Caesars Camp) which, based on its location combined with dating material from excavations, is thought to be the remains of a feature associated with deer management although other interpretations have been proposed. In the south-east corner of the park is The Thicks, an area of dense oaks and hollies. Little Staverton is a small isolated wood on the southern boundary and there is an L-shaped piece of arable land on the west side of the park with a smaller area of arable on the east.
Norden’s map of 1600-1601 shows the park as an enclosed area with entrances on the north, east, south-east and south-west where a path abuts the park perimeter. The park itself is shown as having a wooded central area with more lightly wooded and open areas on the east and west sides. By 1805, Johnson's map shows the park still as an entity, but with areas converted to arable on the west and south-west and probably the east. These converted areas roughly coincide with the more open areas shown on the Norden map, as well as the central area of woodland an isolated piece of woodland (Little Staverton) is depicted on the southern border.

The current (2023) layout is broadly similar, the perimeter of the medieval park is still discernible, although the park is used slightly differently, the arable areas of 1805 are now mainly used for open-air pig farming. The wooded areas of oak savanna contain a high density of ancient oak pollards, with holly being a strong presence in the southern area known as The Thicks. Some of the hollies are said to be the biggest in the kingdom, accompanied by the biggest birches and biggest rowans (Rackham 2006 154-8).

The park features in a number of important publications; Henry Farmar who lived in the remote Shepherds Cottage, chronicles his experience, ‘the effect of hundreds of trees of grotesque shapes always strikes the visitor very forcibly. He receives the impression of a place primaeval and changeless except for the growth and decay of the trees through the centuries. It is a sensation supremely satisfying to those who, in these days of restless uncertainty, like to be assured that the age-old genius of the English scene abides’ (1949). Oliver Rackham in ‘The History of the Countryside’ (1986) states ‘Sometimes a park still has its trees. The supreme example is Staverton Park... a famous and awesome place of Tolkienesque wonder and beauty’.

Sources

Books and journals
Rackham, O, The History of the Countryside, (1986), 145-6
Farmar, H, The Cottage in the Forest, (1949)
Rackham, Oliver, Woodlands, (2006)
Farjon, A, Ancient Oaks in the English Landscape, (2017), 90
Hoppit, R, Deer PArks of Suffolk 1086-1602, (2020)
Peterken, G F, The development of vegetation in Staverton Park, Suffolk in Field Studies, Vol. 3, (1969), 1-39
St George Gray, H, The Earthwork Near Butley in Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology , Vol. XIV, (1910), 69-90

Other
Suffolks Unforgettable Garden Story Site Record - Edward Martin 2023 - Suffolk Gardens Trust

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