Landscape record 0420802000 - STOWE DESIGNED LANDSCAPE (G120 and GD1105)

Full description of gardens (B4).
Brief description in c.1862 (B5) and in early 20th century (B6).
Description, location plan & photos (B7).
Grade I. C18 landscape garden with numerous C18 architectural features, surrounded by extensive parkland. Further architectural developments post-1921. The outstanding monument of English landscape gardening (Hussey). Development from 1714 by Sir Richard Temple, with Charles Bridgeman as designer (B13, B17).
See Register entry for detailed description (B17).
Watching brief carried out by Oxford Archaeology during service trenching from October 2002 to April 2003 identified a number of 17th, 18th and 19th century landscape features including remains of paths (Trenches 1 and 5), footings of boundary or terrace walls (Trenches 1 and 2), earthworks of a former semi-circular terrace across the North Forecourt (Trench 3), and a late 19th century drain (Trench 1). See report for details (B26).
Evidence for use of lakes for boating in 18th century (B35).
Stowe gardens used for battle training by the Home Guard during the Second World War (B40).
1921 sales catalogue (B42).
Conservation Area designated on 18th July 1990. See summary (B52).
Brief account of visit to the gardens in late April or early May 1831 (B53).
Article suggesting that the early 18th century eastern extension of the gardens in the Elysian Fields, Hawkwell Field and the Grecian Valley may have been designed and laid out by James Gibbs in the late 1730s and 1740s (B56).
Article suggesting that the simplistic iconography of the early 18th century gardens was transformed by the adoption of a unifying theme from the 1730s, based on the judgement of Hercules choosing between vice and virtue, with the western gardens representing vice or sensual pleasure and the eastern gardens representing virue (B57).
Landscape Conservation Statement by Dr Sarah Rutherford, prepared following the proposal to build a new music school in Lady Temple's Spinney. The statement expands and updates the relevant sections of the 'Stowe Framework Conservation Plan' 1997-2001, and considers the environs of Lee's Bastion, at the west edge of the Western Garden alongside The Course, the main approach drive to Stowe Mansion and School. See report for further details (B61).

An extensive post-medieval landscape parkland is visible on historic aerial photographs and remote sensing data as earthworks and was mapped as part of the North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18304). Surrounding Stow House (now Stowe School) and centred at SP 67615 38598, in 1814 the parkland included large woodlands which by 1881 had been much reduced and the cleared land turned to agriculture. The parkland in 1814 covered an area about 9.5 square kilometres, extending from Luffield Abbey in the north to Buckingham town in the south.
A post-medieval gravel pit is visible on historic aerial photographs and remote sensing data as an earthwork and was mapped as part of the North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18304). Located in a field about 230 metres S of Home Farm and centred at SP 67006 37435, the subrectangular shaped pit is about 38 x 30 metres at its widest and covers about 1,067 square metres in area. The pit is visible as a very shallow earthwork but is not shown on the 1881 1st Edition OS map or on the 1814 Ordnance Surveyor’s Drawing, perhaps suggesting an 18th century or earlier origin.
Located at the north-east end of Grecian Valley in Stowe Landscape Gardens and centred at SP 67792 38031, a horseshoe shaped earthwork ‘bowl’ is about 131 metres in diameter, with the SW facing side open.
Located in Stowe Landscape Gardens parallel with Grecian Valley and centred at SP 67757 37886, Grotto Lake was a long thin lake about 170 x 11 metres, covering an area about 1,910 square metres. Visible as a lake on the 1814 Ordnance Surveyor Drawing, the lake is not shown on the 1881 dated 1st Edition OS map, with woodland standing in its place (64-68).

An extensive post-medieval landscape parkland is visible on historic aerial photographs and remote sensing data as earthworks and was mapped as part of the North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18304). Surrounding Stow House (now Stowe School) and centred at SP 67615 38598, in 1814 the parkland included large woodlands which by 1881 had been much reduced and the cleared land turned to agriculture. The parkland in 1814 covered an area about 9.5 square kilometres, extending from Luffield Abbey in the north to Buckingham town in the south. At least nine Second World War slit trenches are visible on historic aerial photographs as earthworks. Scattered across Stowe Landscape Park and centred at SP 67731 37621, five slit trenches were ‘W’ shaped and 2 trenches were ‘V’ trenches, with the remaining two being slightly curvilinear. The trenches are up to 2.5 metres wide. At least four remain visible as earthworks on aerial photographs taken in 2019 and recent remote sensing data (69-73).
Geophysical survey of c10ha of gardens south of the mansion by MOLA Northampton in March 2020 and March 2021 identified a number of 18th and 19th century garden features including a possible pond, pathways, ha-ha and tree-planting pits. See report for detail (B85).