Introduction and Site Location

HERITAGE STATEMENT Wood Dalling Hall, Hall Road, Wood Dalling Norfolk. NR11 6SG Prepared by Jennifer Donohue, Archaeologist, BA Hons, Dip Eur. Arch. University of Oxford Heloise Hoare, BSc, MSc Environmental Sustainability, University of Edinburgh. 2nd February 2020 Introduction and Site Location This Heritage Statement has been written to support applications for listed building consent for repairs and renovation works to be carried out to Wood Dalling Hall, Hall Road, Wood Dalling Norfolk. The National Planning Policy Framework 2018 (NPPF) requires an applicant to describe the significance of any heritage assts affected by the proposal, including any contribution made by their setting. The level of detail should be proportionate to the assets importance and no more than is sufficient to understand the potential impact of the proposal on their significance (paragraph 189). This Statement provides an appraisal of the heritage asset and assesses significance in accordance with the policies contained in the NPPF. The impact of the proposed works on the significance of the heritage asset is then described and considered. Wood Dalling Hall is a detached house situated at the end of Hall Road on the north side of Wood Dalling village somewhat remote from Wood Dalling village and the cluster of buildings around St Andrews church, a grade 1 listed building. These buildings include Church Gate Farmhouse listed grade II and are around half a mile to the south-east. The Hall is a grade II * listed building to the north of which are six cottages converted out of farm buildings and a barn. Pre-application discussions have taken place on site with Broadland District Councils Conservation Officer, Barbara Hornbrook. She indicated that a Heritage Statement would be needed to understand the building and the impact of the proposals on its significance, hence this report. The Heritage Asset: Description and Significance Wood Dalling Hall was listed grade II* on the 19th January 1952. In terms of the NPPF it is considered to be a “designated heritage asset”. The list description reads as follows: Country house, now restaurant and public house. Late C16. Red brick, steeply-pitched plain tiled roofs. Two stories and attics, L shaped plan. Main façade to east, three gables with polygonal angle-shafts and corbels all with decorated terracotta finials. Ground floor and first floor windows of six lights with renewed hollow-chamfer mullions and transoms. Windows set in chamfered reveals with moulded brick drip moulds. Attic 3-light wooden casements with hollow-chamfer mullions and transoms. Roll-moulded gable parapet copings, diagonally set corbel at gable peak with octagonal finial with moulded cap. Moulded brick string courses at floor levels. 2 storey porch off-centre to north, similarly detailed; 4-centered entrance arch of moulded brick with decorated spandrels below square drip mould. Original entrance door and frame in east wall. North gable has large partly external stack with twin decorated terracotta shafts with moulded caps and bases. Three later wooden casements in south gable. Large external stack to the south west, the upper section with four octagonal shafts rebuilt C20, flanked by polygonal stair turret with embattled parapet. 3 light lower casement with leaded glazing. External stack on south wall of rear range with corbelled and crow stepped parapet, four shafts rebuilt on original moulded bases. Angle link block with stepped gable with pinnacle base. Attic dormer with crow-stepped gable moulded brick corbels with stuccoed octagonal finials. West gable much rebuilt C20 including large external stack with four linked shafts. Pantiled lean-tos in angle, one with castellated parapet. North wall has 3, 4 and 5 light wooden mullioned windows, attic dormer with crow-stepped gable, openings much altered. Attached coped red brick garden wall at south-east corner. Edward Bulwer of Guestwick, Esq. married Anne, sole daughter and heir of William Becke of Southrepps and they had three sons Roger, Edward and William. Roger Bulwer is said to have had Wood Dalling Hall built in 1582. Roger Bulwer died and the Hall passed to William Bulwer who took up occupation. William Bulwer’s son, also called William, sold Wood Dalling Hall to Sir John Hobart in 1632 and thereafter for a long time it remained part of the Blickling Estate. The Hall having been constructed as the principal home of Roger Bulwer became a farm property occupied by a number of farm tenants. In the 1950’s at the time of listing it was a restaurant and public house thereafter being used for a golf club and a number of commercial purposes involving the hospitality trade. In the 1970’s the Hall was a retreat before once again becoming a restaurant and public house in the 1980’s. In the Eastern Daily Press of 15th December 1982, it is recorded as opening as a holiday centre. Latterly Wood Dalling Hall has been a private house as it remains today. The Hall when first constructed was slightly larger than it is today. When looking at the Hall from its front east facing façade the original building behind it was L shaped. At some time in the C20 the west façade was altered by the demolition and removal of an area to the rear of the now rebuilt and remaining west façade. The other exterior walls of the Hall remain largely as they were built with later additions of what is today a study constructed under a lean too roof to the north and similarly a boiler room and lavatory constructed, also under lean too rooves, to the south west. There are currently four chimney stacks, originally there were five. Of the four existing chimneys three have been reconstructed in the C20. One remains of original design on the north façade. Internally, because of the many and varied uses the Hall has had over the years very few original features remain. In the main hall there are two original oak door frames, the stairs in the polygonal stair turret appear to be original. A further original door frame is located at the top of the stairs on the first floor. Nearly all the window frames have been altered/changed over the years. Significance Significance may be assessed on a scale from very high to none depending on the values society places on a particular historic asset. Historic England considers that these values may be “evidential” (from past activities or remains), historical, aesthetic, communal (commemorative or symbolic, cultural, social or spiritual) or natural (English Heritage 2008 Conservation Principles: Policies and Guidance pp 27-40). Understanding such values can help in deciding the most efficient and effective way of managing the heritage asset so as to sustain its overall value to society. In assessing significance, the importance of the setting of the heritage asset should also be considered. The Hall is a grade II* listed building of high significance as is its setting with the now converted nearby former farm buildings. It has evidential values of past activities, recording how the property survived and evolved. It has historical and architectural values and social value in demonstrating how an important sixteenth Hall house and then an eighteenth and nineteenth century farm operated as part of a country estate and then as a tenanted farm and a commercial endeavour before reverting to a private house. The front elevation of Wood Dalling Hall was executed in a manner to impress. Its similarity to the original Elizabethan section of Heydon Hall cannot be disputed. The two Halls, built at almost the same time, clearly had the same architect. Heydon is larger but the overall visual effect of the front facades of both Wood Dalling Hall and Heydon Hall are strikingly similar. The history of Wood Dalling Hall is a living demonstration of social change from the sixteenth century to today. Proposed Works and Heritage Impact Assessment The proposal is a refurbishment, parts of the Hall, especially the roof have not been maintained for a number of years and the roof is now in need of conservation and renovation. There are unacceptable additions that have been made, in particular the insertion of two large and unsightly Velux windows in the roof area above the north façade. It is understood these may have been inserted without listed building consent. These are to be removed and the original roof reinstated. At some stage one of the chimney stacks was removed. This has permitted a significant alteration to the external appearance of the Hall. Part of the present works would be to reconstruct the missing chimney stack to match that which was removed. Barbara Hornbook has commented that when originally constructed the presence of a significant number of chimney stacks was indicative of the importance of the house and the wealth and social standing of the owner. The restoration of the chimney stack would therefore mark an important step in placing the visual impact of the Hall back as it was intended when first constructed. The three upper stone windows of the east façade were replaced with wooden frames. These wooden window frames are to be removed and replaced with frames that match those on the ground and first floor. This will return the east façade to its original appearance as is demonstrated by Heydon Hall and Hautbois Hall. The intention of the current works is to put Wood Dalling Hall in to a good condition of repair by sympathetic conservation and restoration with the aim of placing the Hall, so far as is possible, back into its original form and state to be a private family home. Summary of Heritage Impact The three aspects that relate to an alteration of the existing external visual appearance of Wood Dalling Hall to be covered by the renovation works are: 1.

Load more