Building record 0420802025 - CASCADE, Octagon Lake, Stowe Landscape Gradens

Grade I. Three roughly gothic arches built from large stones between the two main lakes. Below a further rough segmental stone arch, forming a waterfall. 1760's remodelled early C19 (B14).
The National Trust Survey of Stowe undertaken in 1989 notes that the drive runs across the dam. Also that the cascade was originally adorned with Nymphs and River Gods and flanked by tree and bushes. There was originally a waterwheel within the dam which powered the Guglio fountain, but this probably removed when the lake was formalised in the 1760s (B18).
The earliest evidence recorded (phase 1) consists of the side walls of a well-built stone culvert aligned east-west. A date for its construction was not determined, but the liklihood is that it forms part of the the earliest works when the earthen dam was constructed c. 1714-1720. Phase 2 is represented by the remains of a brick floor laid within the internal outlines of the phase 1 stone culvert and an Oak frame at the downstream end (dendro dated to a felling date of 1758-77. Excavation of 2 side trenches exposed 2 retaining brick walls to the edge of the lake, Likely late 19th to early 20th century date(B65).
Trial trenching carried out by Polyolbion Archaeology in December 2019 and January 2020 in the dam to the north of the Octagon Lake cascade and ruin established that there was no trace of buried structural remains surviving of the formerly more extensive ornamental ruins, partly removed in the late 18th or early 19th century. See report for detail (B89).