Monument record KCC 021 - Kelsale Park; Pond Bay

Former deer park N of Kelsale Hall. Defined by John Middleton, surveyor, in 1616 (R1), showing "the late disparked park of Kelsale and Yoxford now divided in divers enclosures". `A rough sketch of the manor house, as it was then, marks a "bleaching yard", a dovecote, and so on'. A more extensive survey was drawn out in 1638 by Thomas Waterman (R2)(S1). Part of the park pale, marked as `Pond Bay' on 1:10000 OS map (1984), about 190m in length, lies to the S of Kelsale Lodge. Possibly used for large scale fish breeding.
`A farmer here told me he removed another length of it from the north side of the little valley running from Coe Wood towards the Lodge. The surviving stretch is as formidable as Dunwich's town rampart, and supports a dense hedge of at least five species, including stout oaks ....... At Kelsale the lodge presumably served the park-keeper. In 1486 ....... John Martyndale managed to get the keepership of Kelsale Park secured to him for life.' A barn alongside the Lodge, `has gable-ends of diapered brickwork and small terracotta roundels containing the rampant lion of the Mowbrays, and of the Bigods before them. The brickwork otherwise appears to date from John Martyndale's time' (S1).
See also (S2).

At TM 375674 a large flat topped artificial bank with a maximum height of 2.4m and a maximum overall width of 13.0 meters extends for some 250.0m east-west; it divides a high pasture field to the north and low plough to the south, being cut by a south flowing drain. The purpose of the work is not apparent; it clearly forms no part of the suggested Kelsale Deer Park (TM 36 NE 7) and the topographical position negates any 'water holding' purpose. It could possibly have Dark Ages boundary associations but the termini are quite abrupt, although in strength the work has Dark Ages affinities in Cambridgeshire. No local research has been undertaken. Surveyed at 1/2500 on paper copy (S3-4).