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The Odiham Society
Odiham's Royal Deer Park -‐ history and self-‐guided walk ODIHAM’S ROYAL DEER PARK – HISTORY AND A WALKING TOUR This paper was produced to inform members of the Society of proposals for the Deer Park. It has since been agreed to make it available to inform all residents of the history of the Deer Park, and includes a brief extract from Hart District Council’s Conservation Area character appraisal. The paper was written in response to the current owner’s plan to apply for permission to build 12 substantial new houses (comprising 11 houses including a gatehouse, and a “parker’s lodge” as his own residence). This is part of a project which would “restore” some 100 acres of the Deer Park closest to the High Street and Dunleys Hill. In mitigation he is offering to the community a small area for parking (maybe 30 cars), a community building, some hard surfacing, drainage works, tidying up the medieval fish ponds, introduction of some deer contained in a large fenced enclosure. Footpaths would be diverted around the deer enclosure and some low level power cables could be buried to the north of the site. Historical facts Odiham Deer Park stretches from the northern borders of Odiham to Bartley Heath – more than 500 acres. It was one of only 5 royal deer parks in Hampshire (out of70) from the late Anglo Saxon period1 (before the castle was built) until the time of James 1 (some 550 years). Records show its use for hunting by Kings Henry I, Henry II, John and Henry VIII2. The park and its lodge pre-‐dated the castle3. Between 1368 and 1375 Edward III constructed a lodge which replaced earlier structures documented in 1291-‐2 and 1332-‐34. This became the parker’s lodge: Dendrochronology dates part of Lodge Farm to 1368/9.5 In 1575 the park ownership passed to Sir Francis Walsingham, who wrote letters from “my house in Odiham”. A noted historian recently wrote that Odiham’s deer park is unusual in its “combination of royal ownership and the survival of significant buildings (castle, lodge) and landscape features such as park entrances, pale and fish ponds. The lodge is especially significant since few medieval park lodges survive as standing buildings and even fewer have been investigated as thoroughly as this one. I know of no other example in Hampshire of a deer park whose boundary is still clearly traceable and with its medieval park lodge and associated castle”6. It required a good deal of expensive maintenance, and regularly fell into disrepair (Henry II 1402; works documented 1441; description 1463). It was also reported to be boggy (drainage ditch 1276; Henry II 1402; further ditch 1670). 1
McGregor, “A medieval Royal Park” Hampshire Magazine1969 Grueninger N, In the footsteps of Anne Boleyn, 2013 3
Stephen Mileson Oxford Centre for Medieval History, email to EH January 2012 4
The Medieval Park, ed Robert Liddiard 55
Hampshire: Winchester and the North, Ed Bullen et al 2010 p 417 6
Mileson, ibid 2
1 Uses of a deer park “Parks were more than simply pleasurable backdrops to noble residences, and had many functions other than deer management and hunting. They had an important role in the wider rural economy, as places for grazing, timber production, arable farming and industry. They also had a social function, for they demonstrated and enforced seigneurial control of the landscape; imparkment often required the extinction of existing rights over considerable areas of countryside7.” Known uses in Odiham The chase for sport and for venison: the chase (hunting) in the park itself, or to corral the deer prior to releasing them for the chase (towards the Forest of Eversley). Supply of venison. Fish ponds as holding ponds to supply the castle. Royal stud (Colt Hill)8. Effect of Odiham Deer Park on the landscape of and development in the parish The Deer Park is a relic feature in the landscape. Its outline is still visible in OS maps and on Google earth. It has shaped the development of both Odiham and North Warnborough – King John’s estate in North Warnborough was developed up to the boundary with the Deer Park; on the northern side of Odiham High Street plots extend up to boundary with Deer Park. It is clearly visible in 1836 Tithe Map and continues to be visible today The development brief, dated June 1977, for the Angel Meadows estate prior to its development, includes references to the park pale, and the need to protect it. OS maps published 2006 still show the park pale along Poland Lane and at the canal near Valentine Farm. English Heritage wrote in July 2012 “In [Odiham’s] case, the perimeter of the medieval deer park is embedded in the field boundaries and has determined the land use and the settlement around it ... ...The area south of the bypass is better preserved, reflecting the landscape extant in the late 17th century and early 18th which developed from its late medieval management. Unusually the fish ponds stand remote from the park lodge, their location determined by the topography. ... ... We lack substantive evidence that there were further buildings near the ponds. ... There is undoubted interest in the ponds which continued in use into the 17th century .... ... Odiham Deer Park, recorded from the early 12C to late 17C, ... is recognised for its strong local impact and high historical significance. ... Its historical significance is clear as is the manner in which its presence has strongly influenced later landscape character, management and development.” English Heritage noted that fish ponds at Thornbury Castle were recently scheduled as important historical features. 7
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Liddiard, ibid Victoria County History, p 90 and Sheila Millard, Odiham’s Royal Deer Park p8 2 A WALK ROUND THE “RESTORED” PARK This walk describes how you can see the owner’s current proposals on the ground. All information is taken from the exhibition organised by the owner at The Old School in Odiham at the end of April. You are advised to refer to a Footpath Map of Odiham Parish for the footpath numbers before setting out, as they are referred to in the text. Maps are available from the Odiham Parish Council office in the Bridewell, The Bury (01256 702716) or online at www.odiham-‐society.org/walks.html. The walk Leave the George and walk north along the footpath: upon entering the park the most prominent new feature will be the substantial Parker’s Lodge standing south of the stream on gently rising land. Overhead cables on telegraph poles are visible but not prominent in the view, running east -‐ west along the line of the stream behind it. The pylons and their cables to the east are prominent! Note the prominent white gable end of one of the houses just off Dunleys Hill. Walking along the footpath to the west towards the original south gate (Palace Gate), the park metal rail fence and tree planting will follow the path line (“the gallops”) until turning north in line with the bottom of Dunleys Hill. “The gallops” will follow the same line in the opposite direction from west to east to the boundary with Valentine Farm and are intended to be for cycle as well as pedestrian use, though understood not to be for equestrian use. Note to your left the tall gabled farmhouse of Palace Gate which was said to have been the viewing tower for the chase, and is believed to have been from where Queen Elizabeth 1st watched a hunt take place. Pass a pit to your right from which sand was extracted and is now a small pond. Continue towards the bottom of Dunleys Hill and the exit from the park along footpath 17 which leads to Hook Road in North Warnborough. The site of both the “gatehouse” and the entrance road from Dunleys Hill would be just to the left of the substantial oak tree, and will be very visible from the rear of the Odiham health centre. The road will skirt the low lying pond adjacent to existing Dunleys Hill properties and lead through the current hedge line to the 10 proposed substantial new houses. To the east of these houses will continue the large fenced area for the deer. Tree planting, planting of orchards and the need to retain the deer will all mean that the current landscape will change from its open grazed fields, and views across the park will be restricted. There is no current footpath access north from the exit to North Warnborough. A major diversion is proposed of footpath 18 to run parallel with Dunleys Hill and the new houses, alongside and outside the inner deer sanctuary. If you wish to view the area as nearly as is proposed, retrace your steps and take the footpath which crosses from the back of the George and leads diagonally across to the canal bridge en route for Lodge Farm (footpath 18). Cross the stream and turn left on the footpath (21) which runs along the hedge boundary to look back at Odiham and the site where the 11 houses are proposed to be. Beyond the proposed new houses and the stream, the access road would become a private drive to the Parker’s Lodge, giving an estimated length of hard surfaced road of approximately 1 mile, or half the width of the park. 3 The overhead cables, to be put underground, become more prominent at the line of the stream but they are almost certainly lower in height than the proposed houses. Turn back and walk eastwards along the hedge (footpath 21) and past the junction with footpath 19 which comes straight from the back of the George. The proposal is to site the Parker’s Lodge (understood to be intended as a house for the owner) adjacent to the current route of footpath 19, just south of the stream. Footpath 19 would be extinguished. Under the proposals, walkers will walk to the east between two hedges some 2 metres high adjacent to the proposed Parker’s Lodge and the fish ponds (with clairvoie to allow view to fishponds and Odiham) which would be lowered further on to allow a view back to the fish ponds to your right. It is proposed to divert footpath 20 (which currently runs from the top of London Road diagonally across the park) so that it would run straight across the park to the fishponds, and footpath 21 would continue, eventually rejoining “the Gallops” near Valentine Farm. The 3 fish ponds have historical significance as records exist of their use to store fish from Waverley Abbey for feeding the residents of King John’s Castle. As footpath 21 reaches the housing line along London Road, part of the original park pale, bund, ditch and the stumps of two large, now felled, oak trees are clearly visible along the north boundary with Angel Meadows. 30th April, 2015 4