Description

SX 69 NE SOUTH TAWTON

1/177 Terrace walls, gazebos, steps
pond and statue adjoining south-
east of Wood House
GV II*

The terrace features associated with the main formal garden associated with Wood
House (q.v.). 1899-1905 by Thomas Mawson. All granite excepting the bronze statue;
the gazebos have slate roofs.
Plan and description: the ground falls away from the front and right of Wood House.
A large croquet lawn is sunken with raised gravel paths around and enclosed by low
walls. These walls and the terrace revettments are granite rubble but with lumps
chosen to give a crazy paving effect to the faces. Flat granite ashlar coping.
There are small, square-plan, gazebos on the 2 low corners with elliptical headed
arches and pyramid roofs. Another at the top right of the house contains stone
stairs down to a lane below the garden. Near the house are low walls with
rectangular posts and turned granite balusters (like those on the parapet over the
hall of the house). Flights of granite steps take the paths down the terraces. At
the bottom end of the lawn is a circular pond in the centre of which is a bronze
statue by Derwent Wood of a helmeted naked youth holding a spear. It stands on a
granite pedestal. The pond is in front of a semi-circular exhedra defined by plain
granite posts linked by iron bars and intended as a rose pergola. From here a
gateway (granite gate posts with ball caps and ornamental wrought iron gate with
overthrow) to stone steps down to a circular lawn. The sundial from the centre of
the lawn has since been moved elsewhere and is therefore listed separately.
This formal garden leads from the house, down the hillslope toward the landscaped
and wooded lake. It is part of an extensive landscaping scheme conceived by Mawson
to go with the rebuilding of Wood House. Mawson himself considered the whole scheme
one of his major achievements.
Source: T H Mawson The Art and Craft of Garden Making (5th edition) includes copious
notes and illustrations of Wood House. Correspondence with Harriet Jordan who is
researching Mawson's work.

Listing NGR: SX6553695968

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17537136

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings