2018-2019
A National Lottery Heritage Fund Project
The Friends of Graves Park’s “Finding Lost Norton Park” project finished in October 2019, after nearly 6 months of very exciting and intensive work. Up to 50 people attended workshops, visited archives and enjoyed field trips over this period, discovering many hidden features of the park previously unknown or unrecorded.
The Ancient Woodland Indicator plant volunteers regularly mapped and recorded with GPS devices and photos, following the seasons to record evidence of the ancient woodland in the park. Volunteers found wild garlic, native bluebells, dog’s mercury, wood anemone, pig-nut, yellow archangel and wild honeysuckle.
The Historic Landscape followers spent several interesting days (usually but not always in the rain) finding coppice trees, charcoal hearths and prehistoric earthworks, which again are now carefully mapped, surveyed and recorded.
On-going field work by volunteers is beginning to piece together the many old boundaries, trackways and other features which criss-cross the modern park’s landscape. The mapping of these features continues, with data being added to the project ‘master map’. The project is producing many interesting results and fascinating insights into the ‘Lost’ Norton Park and the modern Graves Park’s history.
Those volunteers who prefer the dry comfort of a library looked into various historic records, including the family histories of people who lived and worked the fields. Others visited archives and spent time tracking down old documents and maps. From these, we discovered that the ponds in Graves Park date from mediaeval times and that in the early 1700s, there used to be ornamental lakes and ponds and an orchard where the fields by the arboretum are now.
Local history buffs interviewed local people and recorded their memories of Graves Park, from childhood onwards. A call for information in the local press resulted in a number of contacts being made regarding the Summer House in the park. The few photos that have been found indicate a tower at one corner of the building and this is where the park bell used to be rung to indicate the gates were closing. The Friends’ Group have collected these and other memories to add to the timeline, adding further insight into the rapidly vanishing recent history of Graves Park.
The results of all this collated work helped to produce a report, written by Professor Ian Rotherham, which the Friends hope will identify the significance of Norton Park, now Graves Park, so that it can be protected and recognised as being of national importance.
Our Celebration Event in October 2019 included displays of research results and talks by the experts. Of particular interest were the maps, which showed the exact locations of features surveyed by volunteers. The Friends are hoping to apply for another grant to take this research to the next stage.
Please explore the various presentations below for more details of our results. You can also find us on Facebook:
Friends of Graves Park: Finding Lost Norton Park
You can also find our project on the UK Econet website:
Ancient Woodland Indictor Survey
Meadowhead Woodland in Graves Park April 2019
