Monument record 0420802050 - Home Farm Reservior, Stowe Designed Landscape

Evidence for construction of the Home Farm complex, consisting of the farm buildings, sawmill and walled garden, comes from a bill dated 1791 for leveling. This suggests that the development of the watercourses were the initial stage, working to a master plan from 1775 with design elements from the 1739 scheme by Charles Bridgeman. The water in the Home Farm reservoir is held back by a raised dam appoximately 90m long x 7.5m wide x 3.4m high with a farm track running along the top. The dam is faced with a low brick retaining wall with limestone capping slabs and, possibly, also capped at one time by an iron fence. A narrow brick lined culvert allows the water to fall over a stone sill into a plunge pool. Two other brick culverts emerge from the dam in addition to the culvert that form the leat for the saw mill. The culvert is 0.5m south of the main culvert and survives with its rack and pinion gearing (B18).
The English Heritage survey of Stowe undertaken in 2001 notes the remains of the pond some 120m long and 110m wide and its silted up condition (B20).
Dendro-dating obtains felling date range of 1734-1766 for timbers from dam. Subsequent phases dated 1766-98 and 1780-1812 (B34).