The Norfolk Record Office (NRO) has been awarded £249,977 by the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) to run a project exploring the history of 88 country houses across Norfolk that no longer exist.

The project, called Hall Marks – The Long Shadows of Norfolk's Lost Country Houses, launched in November 2025 and will run until September 2027. It was presented to the Norfolk Records Committee at its meeting on 6 February 2026.

What the project will do

At its core, Hall Marks will digitise fragile historical documents — particularly tithe maps from the late 1830s and 1840s — and make them freely available online. These maps provide a detailed snapshot of Norfolk's land ownership and landscape just before the first modern UK census in 1841.

More than 500,000 individual land records from these maps need to be transcribed, and the project is appealing for volunteers to help — either in person at the NRO or online from anywhere.

The NRO's Norfolk Historic Map Explorer website will also be significantly upgraded. A new platform will bring together full countywide tithe map coverage of around 700 maps, linked land data, a new Ordnance Survey map layer, and side-by-side map comparison tools.

Historic sound recordings documenting life in service within Norfolk country houses will also be digitised and made available online where rights allow.

Public events and workshops

A talk for the Norfolk Archaeological and Historical Research Group is scheduled for 28 February 2026. A public exhibition at the NRO is planned for Spring 2027, featuring original archive material, contributions from community participants, and talks from academics and heritage professionals.

Workshops will be held across Norfolk, including sessions in libraries, with a particular focus on reaching communities that have historically not engaged with the NRO. One-day library sessions will also offer family history research opportunities, with Norfolk residents able to access FindMyPast and British newspaper archives for free through the county's Libraries Service.

Cabinet Member for Economic Growth Cllr Fabian Eagle, who attended the committee meeting in support of the project, confirmed that Cabinet Members would be attending Hall Marks events across the county.

Legacy and future

Committee members raised questions about what the project would leave behind after its conclusion. Officers confirmed that digitised tithe maps and transcribed records will be permanently available through the NRO's online catalogue. Under the terms of the NLHF grant, learning resources must be maintained for at least five years, though officers expressed hope that the updated map website would remain available far longer.

The transfer of oral history recordings from minidiscs to modern digital formats was also highlighted as an important part of the project's lasting legacy.

Concern was raised that the September 2027 end date felt abrupt given the project's potential. The County Archivist, Gary Tuson, confirmed that officers were already considering how the work might continue beyond that point.

Anyone interested in volunteering can expect details to be published during the week beginning 9 February 2026, when the project's public launch, press release, and social media campaign are scheduled to go live.