Carfax Conduit
CARFAX CONDUIT
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1193569
- Date first listed:
- 18-Jul-1963
- List Entry Name:
- Carfax Conduit
- Statutory Address:
- CARFAX CONDUIT
Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1193569
- Date first listed:
- 18-Jul-1963
- List Entry Name:
- Carfax Conduit
- Statutory Address 1:
- CARFAX CONDUIT
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- CARFAX CONDUIT
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Oxfordshire
- District:
- South Oxfordshire (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Nuneham Courtenay
- National Grid Reference:
- SU5372497669
Details
NUNEHAM COURTENAY NUNEHAM PARK
SU59NW
4/95 Carfax Conduit
18/07/63
GV I
Conduit, now eyecatcher. 1617 by John Clarke, mason, for Otho Nicholson; 1686
lower part rebuilt, probably by Thomas Wood, mason; 1789 removed to Nuneham Park
bv the 2nd Earl Harcourt. Limestone ashlar. Square plan. Each face of the lower
stage has a recessed panel, flanking pilasters, and an entablature with a
triglyph frieze incorporating the arms of Oxford and the University. The
ornamental pierced balustrade includes the letters ONON on each face and has a
cresting of standing figures, obelisks and cartouches with heraldic beasts at
the angles. From within the parapet 4 ornamental flying buttresses support an
octagonal superstructure containing 8 niches with standing figures between
mermaid caryatids. The openwork done, covered with fish-scales, has a border of
8 figures and a finial comprising 2 figures back to back. The decoration forms a
complicated allegory with many allusions to the original function of the
conduit. Tablets on 2 sides of the lower structure commemorate, in English and
Latin, the setting up of the conduit in the park. A focal point of the important
landscape by Lancelot Brown.
(Nuneham Park is included in the HBMC County Register of Gardens at Grade I ;
V.C.H.: Oxfordshire, Vo1.V, p.234; Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, p.728; C,
Cole, "Carfax Conduit", Oxoniensia, Vols. 29 and 30, 1964/5, pp.142-l66)
Listing NGR: SU5372497669
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 248332
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Salzman, L F, The Victoria History of the County of Oxford, (1957), 728
Oxoniensia in Oxoniensia, Vol. 29, (1965), 142-166
Other
Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Part 34 Oxfordshire
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 12-Jun-2026 at 08:28:12.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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