From a talk given by Ray Hardinge given to the Framlingham History Society, 16th January 2023, subsequently published in the Framlingham History Society Newsletter1, April 2023
The first mention of the Mere is 1270 when the castle was being built by the Bigod family. The Mere was created for the castle. It was once part of the huge park that was Framlingham and as such contains the archaeology of the town.
The castle was built less as a defensive structure, but more as a statement of status, power, and wealth. The Mere was a fishery for the castle. The parkland around the castle was for entertainment, luxury, and privacy. It was in effect a private kingdom. A ‘parker’ was responsible for managing it, including deer, fish, and poultry. The names of surrounding farms are a legacy from this period. Names such as Little Lodge, where the ‘parker’ lived, Great Lodge, and Countess Wells. Prior to the building of the castle the Doomsday book mentions a six-sail mill – a rare thing – in the area of the current car park. The castle took over the patent on milling. There is also mention of a boat house and a pigeon loft above it.
Fish from the Mere supplied not only the castle, but other great houses in Norwich and London, along with deer meat and poultry. There are several other extant ponds at the back of the castle, used as holding ponds between the Mere and the castle. A tidal river flowed through the park for which there is archaeological evidence but which no longer exists.
By 1307 the Bigod family had died out and the park reverted to the crown, becoming what was known as a ‘Liberty’. An incident is recorded in 1381 at the time of the Peasants Revolt, when demands for free food and the right to forage were in the ascendant. Several locals encroached on the park, stole deer and had a feast. The culprits were caught, and an edict passed that all dogs had to have a paw removed to prevent interference with the deer. Venison was a valuable commodity and strictly controlled. The castle and its parkland, including the Mere was a wealthy and important place.
By 1590 the park was in decline. There was a loss of control and regulations were relaxed. When the Dukes of Norfolk acquired the castle they brought their wealth with them and leased out areas of the parkland. By 1600 the castle was not used much and was sold to Robert HItcham in 1635. The Mere was dis-emparked and the fences gone. What had originally been 35 acres was reduced to 15 acres by 1500 (the current lake is 4.5 acres). At some point around 1600 milling stopped. Some of the current oak trees date from the 1550s as evidence of the old park, some of these being used to build ships for Charles II. There is also some evidence of a plague pit around the Mere, although this seems a strange place to put it.
The Mere was increasingly used to drain water from nearby farms and cattle were grazed on the land surrounding the Mere up until the 1960s. By 1810 it was heavily silted and had, in effect, become a sump. In the 1980s the Suffolk Wildlife Trust took over managements of the Mere. The current fence delineates roughly the original size of the lake. In the 1990s a major survey and silt removal was undertaken. Unfortunately, it is silting up again despite efforts put in place to prevent it. Many artefacts were found at this time, although nothing valuable or remarkable. Among these were crucifixes from non-conformists and a medieval nail. However, many objects may have been washed there from elsewhere.
Research is difficult. Records from Framlingham are patchy. Most evidence comes from manorial rolls which are written in abbreviated Latin. The Mere continues to be extremely popular with visitors and residents of the town. One draw-back of this that the numbers of people disturb the wildlife, which rarely stays around the Mere anymore and diversity of flora and fauna is threatened.
Further illustrations:
Footnote
- “The History of the Mere”, Ray Hardinge, Framlingham History Society Newsletter no. 7, April 2023, see Newsletters and Journals. ↩︎
References
- “Framlingham Mere, Suffolk” by Moraig Brown & Paul Pattison, Royal commission on the Historical Monuments of England, October 1997. Available from: https://historicengland.org.uk/research/results/reports/153-1997
- Photographs from http://framlinghamarchive.org.uk/