In 1788 the Catton Hall estate passed into the hands of Jeremiah Ives either by

purchase or by inheritance, Ives having married Charles Buckle's daughter.

The Ives family were among the city of Norwich's leading mercantile firms in the

worsted stuffs industry that flourished in the third quarter of the 18th century.

They ranked among the dozen wealthiest families which also included the

Harveys, Crows, Herrings, and Pattesons.  The Ives family provided sheriffs or

mayors of the City on six occasions between 1733 and 1801⁸.

Jeremiah Ives

Shortly after acquiring the Catton

Hall estate Ives consulted Humphry

Repton.  This was his first commission

as a landscape gardener.  Repton

worked at Catton in 1788-9 and again

in 1790.  It is possible that some of

the proposed alterations concerned a

ha-ha to form a boundary between

the pleasure grounds round Catton

Hall and the park, and a new entrance

to the estate from the north east

leading from the Spixworth Road

passing a cottage.

Humphry Repton

The main work was probably additional planting in the park and the associated

landscape.  Two of Repton's watercolour views of Catton survive, and because at

this stage he had not developed his 'before' and 'after' technique where a panel

slides over the view of the existing landscape to show a proposal of the changes,

it is probable that the views show Repton's proposals.

Figure 1. Watercolour of Catton Park by Humphry Repton.

This view looking eastwards shows the proposed new drive and picturesque cottage.

Figure 2.Watercolour of Catton Park by Humphry Repton.

This view southwards shows mature oaks which were retained to frame a view of the spire of

Norwich Cathedral and new groups of planting in the park and in a group of fields to the south east.

___________________________________________________________

⁸ ed D. Cubitt, A. L. Mackley and R. G. Wilson The Great Tour of John Patterson 1778-9

(Norfolk Record Society, 2003) p15

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