Heritage Assets

---

Historic Landscape and Sites of Special Interest

There are five sites of special historical significance that lie close to the proposed development site. The National Planning Policy Framework underlines the statutory protection of these sites by emphasising that heritage assets are an irreplaceable resource and should be conserved in a manner appropriate to their significance, to be enjoyed by future generations. 

The Parish Church of St Andrew: in Ilketshall St Andrew is an Historic England Listed Building 

Grade 1. Its tower can be seen for miles around due to its location on ground higher than the commons and lower lying surrounding fields. If the RES development goes ahead, one could stand at the top of St Andrew’s tower and looked North towards Highfields Farm over many acres of fields full of solar panels! This ancient church is an Historic England Listed Building Grade 1. The earliest part of St Andrew’s Church appears to date from the first half of the 12th century. The present chancel appears to have been constructed in the early part of the 14th century with further alterations carried out in the 15th century. Medieval wall paintings were discovered when the church was under renovation which are thought to date from the 14th century. What makes these paintings unusual is the main subject, the depiction of a wheel of fortune, as it is the only known example in East Anglia. The proximity of the intended Solar Farm to this ancient Grade 1 listed building, including the work necessary to construct banks of solar panels, the siting of inverters and the laying of underground cables to a substation close by, must surely undermine Historic England’s desire to preserve and protect this fragile building in its glorious rural setting for generations to come? 

The former Wangford Hundred Workhouse in Shipmeadow is an Historic England Listed Building Grade II. Originally called Shipmeadow House of Industry, it was built in 1766 to hold 450 people to work from the age of five upwards. A taskmaster would arrange casual work with local farmers especially at seed and harvest times.  This is probably the most intact large C18 workhouse surviving in the country.  The workhouse includes a chapel, now St James House, designed by a major architect, George Edmund Street.  All the buildings remain remarkably uncluttered by any recent development.  Its dramatic hilltop setting not only gives it some wonderful views of the Waveney valley and also makes it a landmark from the Norfolk Broads National Park. The proximity of a massive solar farm would obviously ruin the setting of this historic asset.

Mettingham Castle, founded by Sir John de Norwich in 1342 is a scheduled monument and a grade 2 listed building. The gatehouse still survives, as do some of the stone walls and many of the surrounding moats and earthworks. In the 21st century a major renovation project occurred at the castle to repair the worsening damage, involving a grant of £330,000 by English Heritage. The walls today are in a precarious state and the close proximity of heavy machinery, digging trenches for electricity cables, pile driving for mounting solar panels and general heavy use of a single-track country road that lies within 20 feet of the monument, can only add to its further dilapidation and demise.

The Mount, Within the curtilage of Manor Farm, in the Parish of St John, lie the remains of Scheduled Ancient Monument 30547: a Motte and Bailey castle known as The Mount. Although no longer visible from Manor Farm Road, this monument has Protected Status and lies only one field away from the West flank of the development. 

Stone Street, The modern A144 road between the towns of Halesworth and Bungay, encompasses the remains of a Roman road in the section between Ilketshall St John and Spexhall, named Stone Street. This surviving length of the original road is the only recognisable section remaining. The intended siting of solar panels at the far southern point of the development will be clearly seen from this road, attracting drivers’ attention with the glint and glare associated with their reflective surfaces. This may potentially cause accidents, as it is a notoriously fast road, and drivers already suffer from ‘low sun’ blindness in the mornings, when driving towards Halesworth.