Monument record MDO37625 - Grotto in the gardens at Duntish Court, also known as Castle Hill, Buckland Newton

Mowl attributes the grotto to the Lanes of Tisbury on stylistic grounds <2> and grotto restorer and historian Diana Reynell has confirmed to the Dorset Gardens Trust that the grotto is attributable to the Lanes of Tisbury on stylistic grounds, with three archways being particularly characteristic of their work.

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 1, 52 (Monograph). SDO146.

‘To the S. of the S. pavilion [of the house, now demolished] is an 18th-century Grotto of rubble and flint.’

<2> Mowl, T, 2003, Historic Gardens of Dorset, 75-6 (Monograph). SDO12480.

‘High on the opposite bank, next to a modest cataract at the canal head, rise the humps of a perversely ugly slag and rough stone grotto in the Savage Picturesque style of the Fonthill grottoes. It is clearly by the same design team, the Lanes, father and son, Joseph and Josiah, of Tisbury in Wiltshire. Although they employ some spar at Duntish, the Grotto has none of the early shell-encrusted elegance of the Shell House at Sherborne or the Grotto at St Giles’ park. What is interesting is that this Grotto was not intended for polite tea parties, but was built as a cold bath with side dressing alcoves.’

Record last edited

Feb 26 2016 5:03PM