A £62,800 study of the archaeology in Stanmer Park, on the edge of Brighton, has been awarded to the consultancy Stantec Limited, according to a public contract notice.
The contract is for a feasibility study to identify and improve understanding of the designated and undesignated archaeology in the park. It runs from 19 January 2026 to 18 January 2027.
What the study will cover
The notice describes the work as a feasibility study of the archaeological resources within Stanmer Park, which it calls a Grade II Registered Park and Garden. The study will assess the significance and vulnerabilities of the archaeology and recommend how those sites should be managed alongside ecological management of the park.
Stantec Limited, of Warrington, was the only supplier awarded the contract, on 3 November 2025. The procurement was a competitive quotation below the threshold for a full tender, and the notice carries the council reference BHCC-015949. The award notice was published on 27 January 2026.
Where Stanmer Park is
Stanmer Park lies on the northern edge of Brighton, north of the A27 Brighton and Hove Bypass and next to the University of Sussex. Historic England puts the registered landscape at about 485 hectares.
Why the archaeology matters
The park already holds a nationally protected site. The medieval settlement at Stanmer, in Paddock Field beside Stanmer village, has been a scheduled monument since 19 February 2014. Historic England says the village site survives as earthworks, including house platforms, garden plots, tenement boundaries and a hollow way.
According to the list entry, Stanmer was a manor from at least AD 765 and was recorded in 1086 and in tax records from 1327. By 1664 it had shrunk to about three houses.
Historic England’s register entry for Stanmer Park describes a landscape shaped by the Pelham family from the early 1700s. Stanmer House, built from about 1721, is listed Grade I, and the stable block is listed Grade II*. The registered landscape also includes a walled kitchen garden laid out in the 1720s, a Coade stone monument of 1775, the Arboretum and Great Wood.
The estate was requisitioned as a firing range in the Second World War. Brighton Council bought it in 1947 for £225,000.
Stanmer Park restoration
The National Lottery Heritage Fund awarded Brighton and Hove City Council £4,077,800 on 16 December 2014 for the Stanmer Park restoration project, which aimed to revive and celebrate the heritage of the Stanmer Estate.
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