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BRISTOL
In 1737 Thomas Goldney III continued to landscape the garden that he had inherited from his father by adding a range of eye-catchers that included statues, a Bastion, Rotunda and a subterranean grotto that took over 20 years to complete. The main chamber contains a water cascade and a River God. Columns decorated with Bristol diamonds are framed by walls embellished with grotesqueries of exotic shells. Anne Goldney is associated with the shell decoration. Mary Delany visited by appointment at 12.00 o'clock on 17th November 1756 declaring “ It is one of the few things that answers expectation.....by much the finest thing I ever saw”. The magnificent restoration c1985 was done by Diana Reynell and Simon Verity.
The industrialist William Champion built the house (now a care home) and garden between 1740 - 68.
Much of the recycled materials used to construct the grotto complex and the 30' statue of Neptune came from his copper and zinc furnaces. Whole site was restored from 1987. There is an impressive museum that offers a range of social events.
