Monument record MDO6271 - Grotto in St Giles Park, Wimborne St Giles

An ornamental grotto started in 1751 and designed by Mr Castles of Marylebone. The building has walls of flint and rubble and is roofed with tiles and slate. The main rooms are lined with material such as shells and fossils on a framework of tree roots, while smaller ante-rooms are lined with architectural fragments and flints, some suspended on hooks from the ceiling.

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 97 (Monograph). SDO129.

'(6) Grotto (03451142), with walls of flint and rubble, roofed partly with tiles and partly with slate, was begun in 1751 (Hutchins III, 598) to the design of Mr. Castles of Marylebone (Pococke Travels (Camden Soc., xliv) II, 138). The main compartments, an ante-room and an inner grotto, have their walls lined with shells, fossils, coral and stone flakes mounted on an irregular timber framework composed partly of unhewn tree-roots. The lath-and-plaster 'vault' is similarly concealed. In the ante-room the pavement is of patterned pebble mosaic; the inner room has a late 19th century tiled floor and fireplace. Smaller compartments flanking the ante-room are lined with architectural fragments and flints, many of the latter suspended from the timber roof by iron hooks'.

Record last edited

Jan 3 2013 4:24PM