Building record 1323100000 - THE MAUSOLEUM, WEST WYCOMBE

GRADE I. 1763-4, DESIGNED BY JOHN BASTARD THE YOUNGER OF BLANDFORD. HEXAGONAL TALL FLINT RUBBLE WALL ASHLAR DRESSED WITH ENTABLATURE & PANELLED PARAPET SURMOUNTED BY STONE URNS GROUPED IN THREES AT ANGLES. EXTERIOR HAS ATTACHED STUCCO ROMAN DORIC COLUMNS UNDER ENTABLATURE WITH TRIGLYPHS, GUTTAE & URN RELIEFS TO FRIEZE, MODILLIONED CORNICE. INTERIOR, UNROOFED, HAS WALL MONUMENTS, 1 WITH FIGURE SCULPTURE EARLY C18, AND CENTRAL 1769 MONUMENT OF URN ON PEDESTAL UNDER ROMAN IONIC STONE CANOPY. ARCHES, BRICKS AND RECTANGULAR OPENINGS TO WALLS. WALL INSCRIPTIONS TO SIR FRANCIS DASHWOOD, LORD DISPENCER, AND FRIENDS. CHURCH OF SAINT LAWRENCE AND THE MAUSOLEUM FORM A GROUP (B1).
Background research and detailed earthwork survey carried out by English Heritage between April 2000 and June 2001 identified a pair of symmetrical scarps 0.3m high to either side of the main entrance, probably the remains of a formal staired approach to the building. A semi-circular platform 50m wide and 2.2m high seems to have been constructed for the building of the mausoeum; in the 1970s material dredged from West Wycombe lake was dumped here to consolidate the platform (B2-4).