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

Summary

Seventeenth to eighteenth century landscaped park and gardens, with numerous eighteenth century buildings, associated with leading architects and designers such as Bridgeman, Vanburgh, and Capability Brown

Protected Status/Designation

  • Conservation Area: Stowe Conservation Area
  • Planning Notification Area: Seventeenth to eighteenth century landscaped park and gardens at Stowe Park
  • Registered Park or Garden (I) GD1105: Stowe
  • SHINE: Stowe medieval to post medieval landscape garden, medieval deserted villages of Lamport & Boycott, shrunken village of Daford, also moats, manors and fishponds, ridge and furrow earthworks & cropmarks, and areas of ancient semi natural woodland

Map

Type and Period (3)

  • GARDEN (17th Century to 18th Century - 1600 AD to 1799 AD)
  • LANDSCAPE PARK (18th Century - 1700 AD to 1799 AD)
  • MILITARY TRAINING SITE (Modern - 1939 AD? to 1945 AD?)

Description

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).

Sources (31)

  • ---SBC17422 Aerial Photograph: 04/09/76. BCM A2/11/20-22. SP\674376. Yes.
  • <4>SBC26953 Bibliographic reference: George Lipscomb. 1847. The History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham (Volume 3). Volume 3. pp98-108.
  • <5>SBC19727 Bibliographic reference: James Joseph Sheahan. 1862. History and Topography of Buckinghamshire. pp304,306-308.
  • <6>SBC20463 Bibliographic reference: William Page (ed). 1927. A History of Buckinghamshire (Victoria County History) Volume IV. Volume 4. pp229-233 (brief description).
  • <7>SBC11706 Bibliographic reference: Nikolaus Pevsner. 1960. The Buildings of England: Buckinghamshire. pp251-2,253,256-263.
  • <13>SBC16362 Bibliographic reference: WAINWRIGHT A 1989 NATIONAL TRUST ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY: STOWE (COPY, FILED).
  • <17>SBC4634 Bibliographic reference: English Heritage. 1994. REGISTER OF PARKS & GARDENS OF SPECIAL HISTORIC INTEREST IN ENGLAND: BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. Part 4.
  • <21>SBC20023 Unpublished document: English Heritage. 2001. Stowe Park, Stowe, Buckinghamshire: An Archaeological Survey by English Heritage (Survey Report).
  • <26>SBC20898 Unpublished document: Oxford Archaeology. 2003. New Cable Trenches, Stowe School, Stowe: Archaeological Watching Brief Report.
  • <35>SBC22708 Article in serial: Kate Felus. 2006. 'Boats and Boating in the Designed Landscape, 1720-1820', in Journal of the Garden History Society, Summer 2006, pp22-46.. Vol 34, No. 1. pp26-30,39; Figs 4-6.
  • <41>SBC22826 Unpublished document: Amanda Pickard. 2003. Stowe in the War. 6.
  • <42>SBC22853 Unpublished document: 1921. Sales catalogue of 1921 auction of Stowe Estate.
  • <52>SBC23753 Bibliographic reference: Aylesbury Vale District Council. 2008. Stowe Conservation Area Summary.
  • <53>SBC23894 Bibliographic reference: John Claudius Loudon. 1990. In Search of English Gardens: The Travels of John Claudius Loudon and His Wife Jane. p57, illustrations pp54, 55 & 56.
  • <56>SBC24065 Article in monograph: Buckinghamshire Gardens Trust. 2008. Gibbs and Gardening: The Work of the Eighteenth-Century Architect James Gibbs. pp7-12.
  • <57>SBC24063 Article in monograph: Buckinghamshire Gardens Trust. 2007. Talking Heads: Garden Statuary in the Eighteenth Century. pp25-31.
  • <59>SBC24191 Unpublished document: Network Archaeology. 2011. Stowe Golf Course: Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment and Field Reconnaissance Survey.
  • <60>SBC24192 Unpublished document: Network Archaeology. 2011. Stowe School Music School: Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment and Field Reconnaissance Survey.
  • <61>SBC24275 Unpublished document: Sarah Rutherford. 2011. New Music School Site: Lee's Bastion & Nelson's Walk - Historic Landscape Analysis & Conservation Statement.
  • <63>SBC24371 Article in serial: John Phibbs. 2013. 'A List of Landscapes That Have Been Attributed to Lancelot 'Capability' Brown', in Garden History Vol 41 part 2 pp244-277. Vol 41, part 2. p269.
  • <64>SBC25062 Digital archive: Environment Agency. Environment Agency LiDAR data.
  • <65>SBC26096 Digital archive: BRITISH LIBRARY. 2023. Boyce. 1814. Ordnance Surveyor Drawing 2 inches to 1 mile (1:31,680) scale - Stony Stratford (OSD 229). Date Accessed 27-SEP-2022.
  • <66>SBC25776 Map: Ordnance Survey. Ordnance Survey 1st Edition 25 inch (1:2500) scale map. Map. Buckinghamshire VIII.3 1881.
  • <67>SBC25062 Digital archive: Environment Agency. Environment Agency LiDAR data. LIDAR SP63NE Environment Agency National LIDAR Programme DTM 1 Metre dated 2019 SP6737.
  • <68>SBC26096 Digital archive: BRITISH LIBRARY. 2023. Boyce. 1814. Ordnance Surveyor Drawing 2 inches to 1 mile (1:31,680) scale - Stony Stratford (OSD 229). Date Accessed 27-SEP-2022.
  • <69>SBC26087 Aerial Photograph: Historic England. 2023. RAF-CPE-UK-2097 RP 3171 28-MAY-1947.
  • <70>SBC26085 Aerial Photograph: Historic England. 2023. RAF-106G-UK-1380 RP 3232 09-APR-1946.
  • <71>SBC26086 Aerial Photograph: Historic England. 2023. RAF-CPE-UK-1792 RS 4184 11-OCT-1946.
  • <72>SBC25062 Digital archive: Environment Agency. Environment Agency LiDAR data. LIDAR SP63NE Environment Agency National LIDAR Programme DTM 1 Metre dated 2019 SP6737.
  • <73>SBC26106 Digital archive: BBC. 2022. Warden, D. 2003. Buckingham Home Guard- WW2 People’s War. Accessed Online 03-SEP-2022..
  • <85>SBC26751 Unpublished document: MOLA Northampton. 2021. Archaeological Geophysical Survey at Stowe Landscape Gardens March 2020 to March 2021.

Location

Grid reference Centred SP 67516 37652 (3323m by 6959m) (2 map features)
Civil Parish LUFFIELD ABBEY, Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire
Civil Parish BIDDLESDEN, Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire
Civil Parish RADCLIVE-CUM-CHACKMORE, Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire
Civil Parish STOWE, Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire

Finds (0)

Related Monuments/Buildings (136)

Related Events/Activities (5)

  • Event - Survey: Aerial investigation and mapping project (Ref: 7768) (EBC18304)
  • Event - Survey: Geophysical survey (Ref: ENA 9607) (EBC18607)
  • Event - Intervention: Watching brief (EBC16247)
  • Event - Intervention: Watching brief (Ref: STSNC 02) (EBC16520)
  • Event - Intervention: Watching brief carrried out during the installation of new oil tank, associated service trench and car park areas (EBC16246)

Record last edited

Nov 9 2024 11:33AM

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