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

• Wikidata Q17537136

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  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
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  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
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