Oxnead

Oxnead is a deserted village which lies on the River Bure - approximately 4 miles south-east of Aylsham. The name derives from the Old English for pasture for oxen.

Oxnead Hall was one of the homes of the Paston family. It was originally built around 1580 by Admiral Sir Clement Paston and in 1676 it hosted King Charles II and his court. It was remodelled by Nicholas Stone between 1631-42. (He also sculpted some memorial busts of Paston family members which can be seen inside Oxnead and Paston churches.)

Oxnead Hall today

Oxnead Hall Gardens

However, by the eighteenth century this once great Norfolk family had declined and William Paston, Second Earl of Yarmouth, was forced to sell the hall and estate to pay off debts. The hall was sold to Admiral Anson in 1757 and then eventually demolished - with only the servant's wing remaining in tact. This wing provided the basis for the hall today - which was extensively redesigned by the photographer John Hedgecoe (1932-2010).

Among the effects left in the house when it was sold were a great many letters relating to the family's affairs - dating back to the 15th Century. Fortunately these letters found their way into the hands of the Norfolk historian Francis Blomefield. However, they then passed into the hands of a chemist at Diss before eventually being obtained by Sir John Fenn of Dereham. In 1787 Fenn published the first selection of the letters. The complete collection of approximately 1000 letters was published in the 1870s.

Most of the Paston Letters centre around Margaret Paston - either as writer or recipient - and provide a fascinating insight into the War of the Roses period. Many of the letters were written at Caister Castle which the family inherited (via a contested will) from Sir John Fastolf. Like Parson Woodforde's diary, the letters were not written with literary fame in mind - but purely to pass information and record daily events. Agnes Paston - who lived in the hall - was also one of the family letter writers.

The church at Oxnead contains a number of memorials to members of the Paston family - including a bust of Katherine Paston and a grand alabaster tomb of Sir Clement.

St. Michael's Church, Oxnead

Sir Clement Paston's Tomb

Bust of Lady Katherine Paston

The poet Michael Rivière (1919-1997) wrote a moving poem entitled On Lady Katherine Paston's Tomb at Oxnead in which he contemplated the demise of both Oxnead Hall and the Paston family.
 

Outside her dilapidated
Church the usual June again transposes
The graveyard offals into grass and roses,
Beauty and corruption equated, 

Balanced principles,
Whereby this white memento-mori is
Now mere memoria pulchritudinis,
New summer dappling her walls. 

We’re not the tomorrow, alas,
Of this lady’s wish; her treasures scattered for ever,
Her mansion now green mounds beside the river,
Not a Paston left to wear her flesh… 

And since we put the resurrection
Even of annual crops to chance,
Eternity of blood’s no longer, as once,
Any man’s confident possession. 

We do with less than that:
The uncertain hope that someone not yet born
May saunter here on a remote June morning
To find the key under the mat. 

Links:

More Paston Family Photographs

St. Michael's Church

Read a Paston Letter

Paston Heritage Society