Shouldham ThorpeConservation AreaCharacter Statement

SHOULDHAM THORPE, anciently called Garbois-Thorpe, is a scattered village, on rising ground, nearly 5 miles N.E. of Downham, having in it’s parish 314 inhabitants and 1,304 acres of land.

WILLIAM WHITE 1845

Character Statement Designated: October 1980Revised May 2009

2Introduction

2Setting and Location

3Origins and Historical Development

5Character Overview

5Spaces and Buildings

8Listed Buildings

9Important Unlisted Buildings

10Important Trees

10Post War Development

10Traditional Materials

10Archaeological Interest

10Detractors

11Conservation Objectives

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Shouldham Thorpe Conservation Area

Introduction

A Conservation Area - “An area of specialarchitectural or historic interest, thecharacter or appearance of which it isdesirable to preserve or enhance”.

The conservation of the historic environmentis part of our quality of life, helping to fostereconomic prosperity and providing anattractive environment in which to live orwork. The Borough Council is committed tothe protection and enhancement of WestNorfolk’s historic built environment andsignificant parts of it are designated asconservation areas.

Conservation areas were introduced by the1967 Civic Amenities Act. Local Authoritieswere required to identify areas of specialarchitectural or historic interest, whosecharacter or appearance it is desirable topreserve or enhance, and to designate themas conservation areas.This duty is now partof the 1990 Planning (Listed Buildings &Conservation Areas) Act which also requiresthe review of existing conservation areasand, where appropriate, the designation ofnew ones. The quality and interest of aconservation area depends upon acombination of factors including therelationship and architectural quality of

buildings, materials, spaces, trees and otherlandscape features, together with views intoand out of the area.

The Shouldham Thorpe Conservation Areawas first designated in 1980 and amendedin 1992 to accord with new base maps. Thisdocument highlights the special qualities thatunderpin the character of the conservationarea, justifying its designation. It also seeksto increase awareness of those qualities sothat where changes to the environmentoccur, they do so in a sympathetic waywithout harm to the essential character ofthe area. This type of assessment has beenencouraged by Government Advice (PPG15)and it has been adopted as supplementaryplanning guidance.

This character statement does not addressenhancement proposals. Community ledenhancement schemes will be consideredas part of a separate process.

Setting and Location

Shouldham Thorpe is situated on a smallslightly rising plateau in the low-lyingrelatively flat land east of the Great Ouseriver and south of the river Nar, in the trianglebetween Kings Lynn 11 kilometres 7 (7miles) to the north, Downham Market 8kilometres (5 miles) to the south-west andSwaffham 18 kilometres (11 miles) to theeast). The surrounding landscape is gentlyundulating and very different to the openchalk land further east. Lanes are winding

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Character Statement

with drainage ditches on either side and withviews framed or stopped by woods,individual trees or hedges.

The village is situated 2 kilometres (11/4miles) south-west of Shouldham, bothsettlements being separated from the floodplain of the Nar to the north by open heathsand woodland. To the west the land slopesdown gradually towards the Great Ouse. Tothe east, beyond Shouldham, it begins torise towards Swaffham, making for gooddistant views in this direction. The geologyof the area, with narrow belts of greensands and gault clays running roughly north-south,sandwiched between the chalk higher groundto the east and the low lying kimmeridgeclays to the west, has given rise to anunusually rich mixture of local buildingmaterial

The Conservation Area covers the whole ofthe main village proper.There is also a smalldevelopment along the road betweenFincham and Shouldham, within the parishbut outside the village itself. Trees andhedges tend to screen views of the villagefrom north, east and south.

Origins and HistoricalDevelopment

There are Bronze Age, Iron Age and Romansites in the vicinity, though the presentShouldham appears to date from Saxontimes, its name deriving from two Old Englishwords: scyld, meaning debt, and ham,meaning a homestead, village or manor,suggesting that it was a manor that paid rent.Shouldham Thorpe similarly appears to datefrom Saxon times: thorp being an OldEnglish word meaning a hamlet or secondarysettlement. So perhaps it began as anoff-shoot of the larger village.

During the Middle Ages Shouldham Thorpewas probably in the hands of the GilbertinePriory at Shouldham, founded in the earlythirteenth century. The Priory was dissolvedunder Henry VIII in 1539, when the estatepassed to the king and then into a numberof private hands. But within less than acentury, a number of manors in Shouldhamand Shouldham Thorpe were amalgamatedwhen, in 1632, lands in Shouldham andShouldham Thorpe were bought by Sir JohnHare of Stow Bardolph, to become part ofone of the great estates of Norfolk. The sizeand wealth of the Hare Estate may begauged from the fact that by the middle ofthe seventeeth century its receipts, fromrents alone, amounting to some fivethousand pounds a year, equalling those ofmany of the great estates of the nobility.

No seventeenth century maps of this areasurvive, but the picture of farming at this timeas seen in the report of a survey ofShouldham carried out by William Haywardfor the then new owner, Sir John Hare, in1633, can also probably be roughly appliedto Shouldham Thorpe. Different soil types indifferent parts of the parish led to the

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Shouldham Thorpe Conservation Area

development of a variety of agricultural usesarable, pasture, common land and warren.Apart from enclosed pastures, fields wereopen and divided into strips. Sir John ownedstrips in all the fields amounting to 65% ofthe total (excluding commons).

Shouldham Thorpe has never been morethan a hamlet. In 1603 there were only 98communicants at the parish church. In 1836the population was 300, but by 1891 it hadfallen to 241. In 1836, for most needs otherthan religious, the inhabitants of the hamletappear to have had to rely on the mainvillage: only a wheelwright and a "beer seller"are listed under Shouldham Thorpe inWhite's Directory for that year. By 1890however, Kelly's Directory lists, underShouldham Thorpe, a brick and tile works,a post office, a builder, a shoemaker, ablacksmith and a miller (wind), although forpublic houses and shops, for a doctor and,since 1866 for education, it was necessaryto go to Shouldham. This growth in serviceprovision towards the end of the nineteenthcentury seems to reflect an increasedinvestment in the village by the Hare estate,still to be seen, for example, in the cottagesin West Road, the farm buildings at HallFarm and the house and farm buildings atManor Farm.

The Methodist Chapel in South Road wasbuilt in 1849, while later in the century thePlymouth Brethren established themselvesin Middle Road. In 1857-1858 theestablished church reasserted herself whenthe parish church was in large part rebuilt bySir Thomas Hare to the designs of thenationally renowned architect AnthonySalvin. These religious developments in theparish reflect national trends.

With the exception of four new bungalows,and more importantly Church Farm, therehas been virtually no new building in thevillage since the end of the nineteenthcentury. The mechanisation of agricultureand the much smaller numbers employed infarming have changed the make-up of thepopulation, the majority of whom no longerwork on, or are directly connected with, theland. On the other hand the large-scaleplanting of orchards on the north side of thevillage has brought new wealth andemployment, while cottages have beenmodernised, extended or converted from twointo one by new owner-occupiers.

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Character Statement

Character Overview

Shouldham Thorpe is a very smallsettlement, divided by open fields into twodistinct parts.The larger and more significantpart centres on the Parish Church of St Mary,Hall House and the pond, from where itextends south along West Road and eastalong Middle Road. The smaller part liesalong South Road and includes Manor Farm.

Trees and high hedges play a dominant rolein the village, framing views of buildings or,in some cases, concealing them almostentirely. The most attractive view into thevillage is from Church Lane with the churchitself in the foreground set against thesurrounding trees. In general buildings areconfined to one side of each road, leavingopen views over fields or high hedges on theother side.

Traditional houses are generally of twostoreys, though Hall House has threestoreys. Only the modern bungalows are

single storey. Traditional farm buildings, atHall Farm and at Manor Farm are animportant part of the scene.

Spaces and Buildings

The larger part of the village:

This can be subdivided into three, each withits own distinct character:

The junction of Church Lane, Middle Roadand West Road. The focal point of thevillage and of this part of the ConservationArea is the road junction by the pond. It isdominated by trees. These include two finelime avenues in the churchyard, a hugecedar, an overgrown yew hedge, a large, butdamaged, beech and other important treesin the grounds of Hall House and around thepond. The trees frame views inwards

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Shouldham Thorpe Conservation Area

towards the junction and outwards from itand provide attractive settings to importanthistoric buildings.

The overall character of this part of thevillage is semi-enclosed but informal.Attractive features include the pond, thevillage sign and the small green in front, thecurve of Church Lane(drawing the eye to thechurchyard gate rather than straight on downthe Lane), the sloping unmetalled approachto the church, the low curving churchyardwall along Church Lane and the high wall tothe adjoining kitchen garden.

Middle Road (east of the pond).From theroad junction and the small green, MiddleRoad runs in a straight line eastwards. Apartfrom a small modern bungalow, the southside is entirely made up of hedged fields,allowing views across to South Road and ofopen country. On the north side is a shortlength of sporadic 19th centurydevelopment. Laurel Cottage, built of redand buff bricks in a chequerboard pattern,is very pleasing; Cypress and Briar Roseand the converted Old Post Office (built asa chapel by the Plymouth Brethren) form anattractive continuous frontage, marred only

by some inappropriate window replacements.A small modern bungalow ends thedevelopment.

West Road (south of Hall Farm). Pairs ofwell built slate roofed cottages, typical oflarge prosperous estates of the period,characterise the west side of the road. Theydate from 1866 and 1880-2. Their designincorporates the consciously "picturesque"use of materials: three pairs, immediatelysouth of Hall Farm, have walls of red brickand carstone, mixed and laid randomly, withgault brick dressings; chimneys are tall andcruciform and one pair is roofed with "fishscale" slates; two pairs, further south and onthe bend into Coopers Lane, though built inconventionally coursed brick, have similarelaborate chimneys, as well as decorativeeaves courses and, in one case, contrasting

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Character Statement

red and gault bricks. Front gardens areenclosed by hedges, giving visual unity tothe street.

Sandwiched between these two groups ofcottages are an older terrace of threecottages hard on to the road. They are ofbrick, now painted white, and have pantiledroofs.

West Road curves slightly towards itssouthern end, so that, approaching from thesouth, one at first sees no further than theterrace of three two storey cottages. Thenthe view extends to the further estatecottages with their massed ranks of tallchimneys and beyond to the farm buildingsand the tall trees in the grounds of Hall Farm.

The smaller part of the village:

South Road. Open fields on both sides ofthe road, screened by overgrown hedges,separate houses in West Road from thosein South Road. On the north side the fieldsare interrupted only by a substantial modernbungalow and a short terrace of nineteenthcentury traditional two storey cottages. Thebungalow has a paved front garden withposts and chain boundary. The terrace wasoriginally three cottages but is now convertedand extended to form two larger houses, theolder part of flint, complete with gallettedpointing, the extension in modern red bricks.

On the south side is a larger and mostattractive group of buildings. They vary incharacter, style and size and exhibit thegreat variety of building materials traditionallyavailable in this part of the county. Therelationship between buildings is equallyvaried : the road itself curves gently, somebuildings parallel to it and others at right

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Shouldham Thorpe Conservation Area

angles; some built hard on to it and othersset back; some standing alone but manylinked by high walls or hedges.

At the western end of the group is the onlyListed building in this part of the village: OldFarmhouse, set back behind iron railings andhigh hedges, with its stable block at rightangles. Of particular note is the tiny formerEbenezer Primitive Methodist chapel with adate stone of 1849. Many of the bricks alongthe eaves bear names, presumably inscribedbefore the bricks were fired, by members ofthe original congregation.The front is of gaultbricks, but the side has a mixture of reds andgaults and the pantiles are of a similarattractive mix of clays.

Listed Buildings

There are 4 listed buildings in theConservation Area. The statutory list wasrevised in 1985.

Listed Grade ll*

Church of St Mary the Virgin, ChurchLane. Nave and chancel, with bellcote onwest gable. 12th Century, but almost entirelyrebuilt in 1858 by Salvin for Sir ThomasHare. Constructed of carstone with ashlarquoins and slate roof. Medieval west towerfell 1732. Norman west doorway relocatedfrom north side.

Listed Grade ll

Hall House (formerly The Hall), WestRoad. Late 17th Century carstone houseabsorbed by 18th Century enlargement andextensions. 18th century east facade of three

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Character Statement

storeys and three bays wide, withpedimented doorcase and gauged brickarches over sash windows.

Foremans House, Church Lane.Subdivided into two houses. Mouldings onbridging beams indicate 17th Century date.Built of carstone with pantiled roof. 20thCentury windows in 18th Century openings.

The Old Farmhouse, South Road. Builtabout 1830 of gault bricks with slate roof.Two storeys and three bays wide. Doorway

has Roman Doric demi-columns supportingentablature. Modern sash windows in originalopenings with gauged brick arches.

Important Unlisted Buildings

Three out of the four Listed buildings in thevillage stand close together at its heart andmake a major contribution to its character.Elsewhere the particular character ofimportant unlisted buildings have beenidentified representing 82% of the totalnumber of buildings in the ConservationArea. Important unlisted walls have alsobeen identified.

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Shouldham Thorpe Conservation Area

Important Trees

Trees, individual and in groups, make avitally important contribution to the characterof the Conservation Area.

Post War Development

Post-war development in Shouldham ThorpeConservation Area is confined to twobungalows in Middle Road, one in SouthRoad and one in Coopers Lane and a newprefabricated farm building at Manor Farm.Outside the present boundary of theConservation Area, but visually inseparablefrom it, are the recently built house and theassociated farm buildings of Church Farmon the north side of Church Lane.

Traditional Materials

The character of Shouldham ThorpeConservation Area owes a great deal to theuse of the great variety of local materialstraditionally available in this part of Norfolk,both in the older vernacular buildings and inthe Hare Estate buildings of the nineteenthcentury.

These materials include:

clunch (chalk), frequently galletted(joints filled) with small pieces ofcarstoneflintcarstone (sandstone with iron oxides)redbrickgault brick (pink-buff, but tends toweather to grey)red clay pantiles

gault clay pantilescolour washed brick, flint or render

To these local materials should be addedWelsh slates

Archaeological Interest

There are no Scheduled Ancient Monumentsin Shouldham Thorpe Conservation Area

Detractors

The special character of Conservation Areascan easily be eroded by seemingly minoralterations such as unsuitable replacementwindows and doors, inappropriate materials,unsympathetic paintwork and the removalof walls, trees or hedges or the use ofinappropriate front boundary features.Features which detract from the specialcharacter of the Shouldham ThorpeConservation Area include:

deteriorating farm buildings at HallFarm, West Roadoverhead cablesworn verges due to traffic, along WestRoad and on the grass triangle by thepondroad drainage poorly executed causingblocking of drainage ditch in South Road

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Character Statement

A number of modern, minor alterations toproperties in the village detract from thetraditional character, including windowreplacements, and some boundary walls andfences are poorly maintained.

Conservation Objectives

Statement 1

The overall conservation objective isto protect and reinforce theestablished special character ofConservation Areas and their setting.

This will be achieved by:

Encouraging the retention andmaintenance of buildings whichcontribute to the overall characterof each conservation areaEnsuring that new development issympathetic to the special qualitiesand character of each conservationareaProtecting the setting of theconservation area fromdevelopment which adverselyaffects views into or out of the areaThe retention, maintenance andlocally appropriate new planting oftreesMaintaining and enhancing localfeatures and details whichcontribute towards an area's localdistinctivenessWorking with the community toprepare schemes of enhancementEncouraging the removal ofdetractors to the special characterof each conservation area

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Shouldham Thorpe Conservation Area

Contacts and advice

Within conservation areas, a number of special controls apply and it is advisable that anyone proposing to carry out new development, alteration, extensions, installations or demolition should seek advice from Development Services at an early stage. Special controls also apply to the trees sand some may be subject to Tree Preservation Orders. Anyone wishing to carry out work to trees within a Conservation Area should therefore seek advice from Development Services.

King’s CourtChapel StreetKing’s LynnNorfolk PE30 1EXTel: (01553) 692722Fax: (01553) 691663DX 57825 KING’S LYNN

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NOTATION

CONSERVATION AREA BOUNDARY

LISTED BUILDINGS

IMPORTANT UNLISTED BUILDINGS

This Map is reproduced from Ordnance Survey material with the permission of Ordnance Survey on behalf of the Controllerof Her Majesty’s Stationery Office © Crown Copyright. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown Copyright and may leadto prosecution or civil proceedings. Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk. Licence No. 100024314. 2009.

SHOULDHAM THORPECONSERVATION AREA

N

DESIGNATED 16.10.80

REVISED 06.02.92

REVISED 21.02.03