Hello
everybody! There’s exciting things afoot
(and under foot) at Petworth this year.
My name's Tom and I’m the National Trust’s archaeologist for West
Sussex and the South Downs. This year I feel very lucky that alongside my
other work I will be taking a closer look at Petworth Park,
unearthing the secrets and stories that lie preserved in the landscape and beneath
the ground – and I’d like you to help me do it! I’m hoping
there will be lots of opportunities for anyone who is interested to get involved. But first, a bit more about Petworth, and why
we are doing this in the first place…
Petworth Park is very different from the original
park which was created at least 750 years ago. Today the park is made up of
gentle rolling slopes, tranquil shady glades of trees and grand vistas. It looks natural but in fact everything we
see is the result of careful crafting and moulding of the landscape over
hundreds of years, to fit the fashions of the times and styles of the
owners. At one time or another, the park
has included canals and formal gardens, rampart terraces and monumental
stables, Henry VIII’s banqueting hall and a Second World War military camp –
not to mention the original manor house!
A bird's eye view of Petworth Park, can you image a stable block and formal gardens stretching as far as the lake?
There are
so many questions that remain to be answered, so many discoveries just waiting
to be made. Over the next year we will be examining historic maps and
documents, looking beneath the ground with geophysics and excavation and searching
for traces and clues in the landscape to uncover the physical evidence of
Petworth’s hidden past.
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