Building record 0420802012 - SHELL BRIDGE and former site of Captain Cook's Monument, Elysian Fields, Stowe Landscape Gardens

Brief description (B4).
Description & location plan (B7).
Grade I. A dam in the Elysian Fields, disguised as a low bridge. C1740 by Kent. Stone dressings, rendering encrusted with shells. Five bays with low arches, central bay projecting and pedimented, 2 smaller pediments each side above piers. Captain Cook's Monument, standing on the bridge, is a small monument with portrait medallion dated 1778 (B14).
(Note: Cook's Monument see CAS 0420802043 - monument removed in late 1990s for eventual re-siting on Duck Island)
The National Trust's Survey of Stowe undertaken in 1989 noted that the south front is encrusted with conch shells and that the overflow from the upper lake originally ran through channels in the centre and on either side creating a cascade. The abutments on either side may have supported a wooden footbridge giving views of the fake meander in the Styx and Worthies river (B18).