Garden Pavilion at Trentham Gardens

Summary

Garden pavilion, 1833 to 1842, part of Charles Barry’s remodelling of Trentham Hall and Gardens for the 2nd Duke of Sutherland.

Reasons for Designation

The Garden Pavilion is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* a skillfully composed and detailed classical garden structure, illustrating the mid-Victorian fashions in Italianate gardens.

Historic interest:

* the last surviving of several garden pavilions at Trentham;
* designed by Charles Barry, an important C19 architect and leader in the popularisation of the Italianate garden style.

Group value:

* the pavilion has a strong relationship to other listed features in Barry’s flower and parterre gardens, and to the Grade II* registered Trentham Gardens.

History

Trentham Hall and gardens were established on the site of a C12 Augustinian priory when, in 1540, after the priory was dissolved, it was purchased by wool merchant James Leveson. Under the ownership of the Leveson-Gower family, the house and grounds were redesigned multiple times. From 1630 to 1639 a new house was built for Sir Richard Leveson, in 1707 it was redesigned by William Smith of Warwick, and it was redesigned again between 1737 and 1738 by Francis Smith of Warwick. In the mid-C18, at the same time as Capability Brown enlarged the lake, the house was enlarged by Henry Holland from nine to fifteen bays, and in the early C19 Charles Heathcote Tatham added the east and west wings to its south elevation.

In 1833, following the death of George Granville Leveson-Gower, the 1st Duke of Sutherland, the estate was inherited by his eldest son, the 2nd Duke of Sutherland, and his wife, Harriet (née Howard). In the same year they commissioned the architect Sir Charles Barry to redesign Trentham Hall, which included the addition of the grand entrance at the west end, the addition of a belvedere tower over the old kitchen, the building of an orangery, sculpture gallery and clock tower, and the rebuilding of the stables and service quarters. The design of the Italianate formal gardens is also attributed to Barry.

Trentham Hall was largely demolished from 1910 to 1912 but remains of its entrance and conservatory, orangery and sculpture gallery and stable block survive. The entrance lodges to Trentham were relocated from the west entrance to the present position on Stoke Road in the 1920s, when the site became a public pleasure garden. The various structures built for entertainment in the C20, such as the tennis courts, ballroom and open-air swimming pool have since been demolished. The estate is now operated as a commercial leisure attraction.

The triple-arched pavilion was one of the architectural structures within Charles Barry’s Italianate garden scheme for the 2nd Duke of Sutherland. This formal arrangement consists of two garden terraces leading down to the lake: a flower garden on the upper level and a parterre garden on the lower, with balustrading, statues, urns, and fountains. The pavilion connects the two levels and is adjoined to the retaining wall and balustrade between the two garden terraces. There were four pavilions originally built; two were triple-arched and were sited at the ends of the balustrade and retaining wall. The other two were single-bay domed pavilions located at the southern corners of the flower garden.

Sir Charles Barry (1795-1860) was a leading architect in the early to mid-C19. Best-known for his design of the Houses of Parliament with AWN Pugin, he was also an influential country house architect, and a passionate architectural gardener, popularising the Italianate style.

Details

Garden pavilion, 1833 to 1842, part of Charles Barry’s remodelling of Trentham Hall and Gardens for the 2nd Duke of Sutherland.

MATERIALS: constructed from limestone ashlar.

PLAN: the pavilion stands at the north-west corner of the parterre. It is rectangular on plan, of three square bays orientated east-west.

EXTERIOR: a classically-designed garden pavilion of three bays. Elevations consist of a series of Renaissance arches with moulded architraves, with freestanding Corinthian columns in between and at the angles. The moulded entablature has a disc at the centre of each bay. There is a deep dentil cornice, and finials on the parapet above each column.

INTERIOR: bays are divided by Romanesque arches and each has a saucer-dome vault.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: to the north of the pavilion a set of shallow steps leads to a stone seat. The seat, aligned with the central bay of the pavilion, is semi-circular with short flanking screen walls; it matches those found in the flower garden's east and west walls (Grade II).

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

272392

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Mowl, Timothy, Barre, Diane, The Historic Gardens of England: Staffordshire, (2009), 36-41, 60-66, 173-175, 230-233, 296-299
Cornforth, John, Trentham, Staffordshire – II in Country Life, (01/02/1968), 228-231
At risk of ruin in Country Life, (09/05/1996), 68-71

Websites
M H Port , ‘Barry, Sir Charles (1795 – 1860)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, accessed 15/01/2019 from https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/1550

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