Monument record 0420802070 - Bridgeman's Canal, South Lawn, Stowe Landscape Gardens

The National Trust's Survey of Stowe undertaken in 1989 noted a rectangular hollow with slight mounds to the N and S. Though to be the remains of the canal which formed a long axis joing the Queen's Theatre and the Rotunda in Bridgeman's formal gardens (B18).
The English Heritage survey of Stowe undertaken in 2001 notes that a parchmark on aerial photographs centred at SP67403760 is thought to be the ornamental canal begun in 1716 and filled in between 1756 and 1763. The canal is shown on Bridgeman's plan of 1720 and Riguad's engraving of 1733-4 (B19).
Geophysical survey carried out by MOLA Northampton in March 2020 and March 2021 identified a variable linear anamoly interpreted as the southern edge of Bridgeman's Canal. A more distinct anomaly on the central axis of the canal is believed to be a modern drainage cut. A dog-legged row of closely-spaced ferrous anomalies between the site of the South Front Pond [CASS 0420802038] and the northern edge of Bridgeman's Canal is interpreted as a historic pipe supplying a head of water from the pond to the former fountain in the centre of Bridgeman's Canal (shown in an engraving of 1739). See report for detail (B85).