Two extensions added to the original group of almshouses constructed in 1825. The first extension was a group of almshouses to the east in 1930, the second the octagonal houses and hall in 1976 (Harman & Minnis 2004, 214). Prior to the construction of the almshouses, the area consisted mainly of fields which were enclosed in a piecemeal fashion from Sheffield Park. The original almshouses had been built in 1666 on part of the old castle orchards after being endowed in the will of Earl Gilbert. Bernard, the twelfth Duke of Norfolk, who was also responsible for the opening of Norfolk Park, moved the almshouses to their current site. Invisible legibility of earlier historic landscapes.