ShouldhamConservation AreaCharacter Statement

SHOULDHAM is a pleasant village, with several neat modern houses, on a small green, 51/2 miles N.E. of Downham, and 10 miles W. of Swaffham. Its parish contains 3,775 acres, including a large rabbit warren. In some writings it is called Market Shouldham.

WILLIAM WHITE 1845

Character Statement Designated: December 1979Revised May 2009

Contents

2Introduction

2Setting and Location

3Origins and Historical Development

5Character Overview

5Spaces and Buildings

10Listed Buildings

11Important Unlisted Buildings

11Post War Development

12Traditional Materials

12Archaeological Interest

13Detractors

13Conservation Objectives

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

The Shouldham Conservation Area was firstdesignated in 1979.This document highlightsthe special qualities that underpin thecharacter of the conservation area, justifyingits designation. It also seeks to increaseawareness of those qualities so that wherechanges to the environment occur, they doso in a sympathetic way without harm to theessential character of the area. This type of

assessment has been encouraged byGovernment Advice (PPG15) and it has beenadopted as supplementary planningguidance.

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

Setting and Location

Shouldham sits in a shallow valley, runningroughly north-south. To the west the groundrises gently towards Shouldham Thorpe andThe Sincks woods, with views generallyclosed by trees.To the east the ground risesrather more steeply with open views overthe chalk downs towards Swaffham. To thenorth the view is closed by rising ground andthe woodlands of Shouldham Warren andLing Hills. To the south the view is moreopen as the shallow valley continues towardsFincham. There are attractive views of thevillage both from the west, where it appearsin the foreground with the church and therising chalk downs as backdrop, and fromthe east, looking down from the church.

A market village, with The Green as itsnucleus, Shouldham is situated at thejunction of several minor roads, within the

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Character Statement

triangle of main roads between Kings Lynn(12 kilometres to the north), DownhamMarket (9 kilometres to the south-west) andSwaffham (15 kilometres to the east).

Origins and HistoricalDevelopment

Fragments of Roman pottery have beenfound near the church, suggestingoccupation from early times and there areBronze Age, Iron Age and Roman sites inthe vicinity. The present village appears todate from Saxon times, its name derivingfrom two Old English words: scyld, meaningdebt, and ham, meaning a homestead,village or manor, suggesting that it was amanor that paid rent. It has sometimesbeen referred to as “Shouldham Market”. Atthe time of the Domesday Survey of 1086the population was about 300 and therewere two churches in the parish: the presentchurch of All Saints and the church of StMargaret. St Margaret’s was attached to thePriory and although it's exact site is notknown, it is said to have been sited atChalkpit Hill.

During the Middle Ages Shouldham was inthe hands of the Gilbertine Priory, foundedin the early thirteenth century on the site of

the present Abbey Farm, to the north of the village. It's estate would have dominatedvillage affairs. The position of All Saints andthe evidence of “house platforms” in the fieldbetween the Church and the village suggeststhe possibility of the settlement havingmoved westwards during the course of theMiddle Ages.

The Priory was dissolved in 1539, when it'sestate was granted by the King to ThomasMildmay, but barely a century later it becamepart of a much larger estate, when in 1632the Priory manor, together with the lessermanors of Colts and Trusbutts, were bought by Sir John Hare of Stow Bardolph, tobecome part of one of the great estates ofNorfolk. The size and wealth of the HareEstate may be gauged from the fact that bythe middle of the seventeeth century, it'sreceipts from rents alone, amounted to somefive thousand pounds a year, equalling thoseof many of the great estates of the nobility.

Though no maps of the parish survive fromthis period, a survey report carried out forthe new owner presents a picture of theestate and its agriculture in 1633.The villagecomprised two parallel roads, Westgate andEastgate, linked by the Green and aneast-west road at their southern end.Westgate was the principal residential area

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Shouldham Conservation Area

while Eastgate was only sparsely populated.The Green was the Market Place. WhenShouldham Hall was built c.1830, Eastgatewas diverted into New Road: until then it hadcontinued due north. Otherwise the roadpattern changed little until the developmentof the new residential estate in the groundsof the Hall in recent years.

Different soil types in different parts of theparish led to the development of a varietyof agricultural uses: arable, pasture, commonland and warren. The open chalk downs inthe south-east corner of the parish providednine acres of “digging ground” to feed a limekiln. Apart from enclosed pastures, fieldswere open and divided into strips. Sir JohnHare owned strips in all the fields amountingto 65% of the total (excluding commons),and so would have dominated the workinglife of the village. Much of the parish hasremained in the Hare Estate to the presentday.

During the nineteenth century, localdirectories record a general increase in thelevel of services supported by the village andthe Hare Estate. In 1836 there were fivepublic houses, a miller, a solicitor, apainter-cum-plumber; while a warrenerlooked after the rabbit warren in the north ofthe parish and a “fuel allotment” was setaside where the poor could cut peat forburning. There were two annual livestockfairs, which no doubt took place on theGreen. By 1845 there were, in addition, abeer seller, a baker, two blacksmiths andthree carpenters, and in 1858 a fine bakerywas erected in Westgate Street. By 1900 thenumber of pubs had dropped to three.

The growth of Nonconformity in thenineteenth century was marked by thebuilding of the Wesleyan Methodist Chapelin 1816 and later by the opening of the

Methodist Free Church. Several generationsof the Lemmon family of Colts Hall wereMethodist local preachers. In 1845 a SundaySchool was attended by more than 100children, but the first move towards universaleducation was marked, in 1866, by thebuilding of the School, which (in 1900) wasattended by 132 children.

The building of a railway line, with a stationonly five miles away at Magdalen Road,Watlington, heralded the beginning of theend of the traditional, largely self-sufficientvillage. Since then, the twentieth century hasbrought enormous changes in agriculturalmethods and employment, in roadtransportation, in means of communicationof all kinds, in education and habits ofchurch-going, in shopping patterns andleisure pursuits and in the provision of publicservices. These changes have had a subtleeffect on the physical appearance of thevillage, as in the surfacing of the roads withtarmacadam, the proliferation of posts andoverhead wires and the use of non-local andnon-traditional building materials. Moreobvious physical changes affecting theConservation Area include the developmentof the mobile home site abutting thenorth-west corner of The Green, the buildingof the new Primary School on Lynn Road,the vacating of the old Victorian school in

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Character Statement

Eastgate, the erection of Trussbot Lodge onthe east side of The Green and themodernisation of many cottages, ofteninvolving converting two into one. Outsidethe Conservation Area, important changesinclude the residential development of thegrounds of Shouldham Hall and of lands tothe south and west of New Road.

Character Overview

The Conservation Area boundary is drawnclosely round The Green and its immediatehinterland, but extends to include the Churchand the intervening open space: historicallyand visually, both inseperable from thevillage. It excludes Shouldham Hall to thenorth, now surrounded by a modernresidential estate, and Westgate Street tothe west. The latter, though part of thehistoric settlement, now contains muchmodern infill development and has not thesame visual cohesion and strong form asthe Conservation Area, from which it isseparated by open fields.

Its particular shape and size, the way oneenters it and the relationship between spaceand buildings combine to make The Greena memorable place to be in. The buildingssurrounding it may lack the quality of manybetter known Norfolk villages, but the variety of building types and of local materials makefor a satisfying whole.The two roads leadingto The Green, Lynn Road from the west andNorwich Road from the east, are both gentlycurved, allowing attractive groups of

buildings, open spaces, walls and trees, andfinally The Green itself, to be seen fromcontinually changing viewpoints.

The Church and Hill House (the formerRectory), though isolated from the village,have a striking setting, while the open spaceseparating them from the village is ofparticular archaeological interest.

Spaces and Buildings

The Conservation Area may be divided intofour parts, each with its own distinctcharacter : The Green, the Church and theopen space separating it from the presentvillage, Norwich Road and Lynn Road.

The Green. As befits a market place, TheGreen is essentially an open space at a roadjunction, with a major road running east-west(Lynn Road and Norwich Road) and a minorroad going north (Eastgate). It is large,measuring some 100 metres (330 feet) x 60metres (200 feet), and tends to dwarf the,mostly modest, buildings which surround it.But it feels enclosed because all threeentrance roads curve to block direct viewsout.

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Shouldham Conservation Area

The Green is a fine example of “townscape”.Its shape is a rectangle “tilted” eastwards.This shape, together with the “funnelling” ofthe space at the three entrances, makes fora great variety of relationships betweengroups of buildings without destroying theunity of the space.

Going clockwise from the south-west corner:

West Side.

Alpha Cottages, on the north side of the“funnel”, is an attractive nineteenth centuryterrace, with “penny pointed” brickwork andguaged brick arches to openings. Windowsare all original, or good replacements,retaining the unity of the whole row.

The Crofts is an attractive narrow pedestrianlane leading westwards to the School playingfields and to Lamson’s Lane. The north sideof the lane is built up with a continuous rowof cottages (Tory Cottage and BatesCottage are listed buildings) followed by ahigh garden wall. The south side, bycontrast, is bounded by hedges, over whichis a pleasant view of gardens and the backsof cottages. The garden wall turnsnorthwards along Lamson’s Lane. This laneappears on old maps as a “back lane”roughly mid-way between Eastgate and

Westgate, but when Eastgate was divertedin the nineteenth century, the northern endof the lane became part of New Road.

Storom Cottage and London House, theadjacent former shop face The Green, butform one block with The Crofts. They areboth listed buildings. Situated at its highestpoint and solidly built of chalk, carstone andred and gault bricks, to a uniform and simpleGeorgian design, they dominate this end of The Green. A carriage arch gives a viewthrough the building.

North side.

The north-west corner of The Green isdisappointing with the entrance to theCaravan Park a weak link between thehistoric built up frontages to either side. Therest of the north side of The Green is anattractive frontage of very varied materials,including galetted limestone blocks, probablyfrom the former priory.

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Character Statement

The railings and very pronounced piers tothe playground of the former Primary Schoolmake an interesting and visually strong northside to the “ funnel” into Eastgate.

East side.

Forming the south side of the “funnel” andcontinuing north along Eastgate, Colts HallBarn (listed) dominates the view lookingdown The Green. It is long, being two barnsbuilt end on, and has a great “presence”. Itprobably dates form the eighteenth century,but is built of chalk and brick with reusedblocks of limestone, possibly from the formerpriory.

South of the barn is Colt’s Hall (listed), afine substantial late Georgian house, with a“warm” gault brick front facade, low pitched

slate roof and overhanging eaves. It is setback behind an attractive curved brick wall,a hedge and mature trees, which form a“solid” frontage to The Green.

Further to the south, the sense of enclosureis much less, with Trussbot, a modernsuburban-type house, and then Alpbach,two cottages of chalk and brick, convertedto one, with a large open garden on the bendinto Norwich Road.

South side.

The Green’s south side has an almostcontinuously built-up frontage, but at itseastern end, where it curves into NorwichRoad, it is “weaker” and more open. As thespace “funnels” into Lynn Road, this groupreaches its climax with The King’s Arms.Of flint and brick, it is the finest example ofvernacular building on The Green. The eastgable presents an interesting mixture oftraditional materials. The boarded fence tothe car park does it less than justice.

The Green itself is still largely grass, and itscharacter remains un-fussy and rural. Fullymade up modern roads skirt its south andeast side, but elsewhere tracks and otherhard surfaced areas are more traditional andinformal. Remarkably, the space ispleasantly uncluttered by road signs and

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Shouldham Conservation Area

concrete kerbs have only been introducedwhere essential to protect the grass. Thereis one young tree towards the eastern end,with a seat around it. Other “street furniture”includes a “traditional” telephone box (listedgrade II), a cast iron pump, a post box, a flagstaff and, by Trusbot Lodge, a village signfeaturing Shouldham Priory and a seat.Posts and chains have been erected alonga length of the south side and oak postshave been erected to protect the edges ofthe grass.

Norwich Road.

Descending from the higher chalk downlandto the east by the Norwich Road, a goodoverall view of the village can be had. Itappears as compact without being denselydeveloped while, on this side particularly,the traditional distinction between settlementand open countryside remains clearlymarked. On the south side of the road thevillage, and the Conservation Area, startswith Forrester’s Row, a nineteenth centuryterrace of cottages at right angles to theroad. On the north side, in the large fieldseparating the village from the church,“house platforms” are clearly visible asevidence of earlier settlement, and the villagestarts with a nineteenth century terrace ofthree houses facing the road. The road thencurves sharply northwards to The Green,which only comes into view at the lastminute. On its south-west side a long highwall of flint and brick is an important feature.It screens the substantial nineteenth centuryfarm buildings of Melrose Hall, including along brick and clunch barn, possibly theremains of the original hall. It has beenbroken in two places to give access to modern bungalows. Melrose Hall itself isscreened from the road by an importantgroup of trees to the north of the farmyard.

On its north-east side the road is loosely builtup with a mix of older cottages of differentlocal materials, a modern house, and aformer service garage of white paintedconcrete blocks.

Lynn Road.

The approach from higher ground to the westgives a good view of the whole village,although modern developments have blurredthe boundary between open country and builtup settlement.

As the road bends northwards there is ashort break with open field on either side, with a view ahead of flint gables, chimneysof red and gault brick and red pantile roofs.The Conservation Area begins, on the northside with an attractive group of former farmbuildings of flint and carstone, now inresidential use, followed by The Gables, asubstantial vernacular house of carstone andred brick, probably originally a farm housebut with considerable Victorian alterationsand additions, including half-timbering,pintiles and tall elaborate chimneys. In frontof it is a long low flint wall which extends tomeet the entrance to the new St Martin atShouldham Primary School. Theconservation area boundary has beenamended to include it. Wide gates are set

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Character Statement

back between well built walls of flint andbrick: these are angled to give good sightlines but the visual effect is to “blow open”the traditional street frontage. There is asudden spectacular view of The Green, withthe Church beyond.

Eastgate Street.

The former Primary School is a fineexample of a late nineteenth century churchschool, with pointed arched windows andsteep slate roofs and built of gault bricks withdecoration in red brick. Opposite, beyondColt’s Hall Barn is the attractive hedgedgarden of Colt’s Hall, with trees and a largepond. North of the garden the ConservationArea boundary follows the field boundaryrunning eastwards, to include the historic

earth works west of the Church but toexclude the further earthworks in the fieldbeyond.

Church Road.

The Church of All Saints enjoys amagnificent setting, raised on higher groundbeyond the meadow to the east of the villageand clearly visible from miles around. Thepleasing southern approach, along anunmade-up road, focusses directly on thetower, its dark carstone contrasting sharplywith the white portland stone of the warmemorial in front. The church was muchrestored by the Hare family towards the endof the nineteenth century. A low flintretaining wall runs along the west side of thechurchyard: from here the earthworkscontaining the remains of former settlementcan be clearly seen and there is a fine viewover the village to the west. The church issheltered by an important group of maturetrees which extends into the grounds of HillHouse, immediately to the south.This formerRectory is a good example of late nineteenth

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Shouldham Conservation Area

century domestic architecture in the gothicstyle, very possibly designed by the samearchitect as the former school.

Listed Buildings

There are 8 Listed buildings and features inthe Conservation Area.The statutory list wasrevised in 1985 and added to in 1995.

Grade 1 Buildings

Church of All Saints,Church Road. Nave,chancel, west tower and south transeptalchapel. 14th, 15th and 19th centuries. Ofcarstone and flint with ashlar dressings andslate roofs.

Grade 2 Buildings

Headstone to Allen Mills, Churchyard,Church Road. 18th century.

Headstone to Margaret Mills, Churchyard,Church Road. 18th century.

Colts Hall, Eastgate (facing The Green).Early 19th century. Refined gault brickfacade of three bays with slate roof. To theside, lower service wing of clunch.

Colt’s Hall Barn, Eastgate (partly facingThe Green). Probably 18th century, but builtof re-used Medieval and 16th century chalkand brick. Large double barn, with buttressesand hipped roof.

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Character Statement

London House (formerly Spar Shop),TheGreen. Late 18th century with attached19th/20th century shopfront. Five bay frontelevation.Walls of chalk with brick dressingsand roof of glazed pantiles.

Storom Cottage, Tory Cottage and VicCottage, corner of The Green and TheCrofts. Late 18th century. Five bay frontelevation to The Green is continuation ofLondon House facade and includes carriagearch.

Telephone kiosk, The Green. “K6” typedesigned by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in 1935.

Important Unlisted Buildings

Although there is a modest number of listedbuildings, there is a much larger number ofimportant unlisted buildings which contributeto the special character of the ConservationArea. Both categories taken togetherrepresent 86% of the total number ofbuildings in the Conservation Area.Important unlisted walls have also beenidentified.

Post War Development

The principal post-war developments inShouldham are the residential estate centredon Shouldham Hall, the new Primary Schooland infill houses in Westgate and Lynn Road.With the exception of the entrance to theschool, these are all outside theConservation Area.Within the ConservationArea, new development has been confinedto three bungalows on the south side of Norwich Road, two of them largely hiddenbehind a high wall; a rebuilt end-of-terracehouse on the north side of Norwich Road;two larger detached house: Trusbot Lodge

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Shouldham Conservation Area

(facing The Green) and Melrose (at the backof other properties in Lynn Road) and, finally,the caravan park north-west of The Green.

Traditional Materials

The geology of the area, with narrow beltsof greensands and gault clays runningroughly north-south, sandwiched betweenthe chalk high ground to the east and thelow-lying kimmeridge clays to the west, hasgiven rise to an unusually rich variety of localbuilding materials, reflected in the characterof Shouldham. These traditional localmaterials may be seen both in oldervernacular buildings and in later buildings ofthe eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

They include :

Chalk, frequently galletted (joints filled)with small pieces of carstoneflintcarstone (sandstone with iron oxides)red brickgault brick (pink-buff, either “warm” or“cool”, but tends to weather to grey)red clay pantilescolour washed brick, flint or render

To these local materials should be addedWelsh slates.

Archaeological Interest

There are no Scheduled Ancient Monumentsin Shouldham Conservation Area. BronzeAge, Iron Age and Roman finds have beenmade in the parish. The site of formersettlement, both roads and buildings, can beclearly seen in the field between the churchand the present village, indicating thathistoric Shouldham has either shrunk ormoved westwards, leaving the church in itspresent isolation.

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Character Statement

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.

Specific features which detract from thespecial character of the ShouldhamConservation Area include :

Mobile home and fence at entrance toCaravan Park, NW corner of The Green.Overhead cables.

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 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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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.

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SHOULDHAMCONSERVATION AREA

DESIGNATED 06.12.79

REVISED 21.02.03

NOTATION

CONSERVATION AREA BOUNDARY

LISTED BUILDINGS

IMPORTANT UNLISTED BUILDINGS