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MIDLANDS

The 18th century Walton Estate in Warwickshire was owned by Sir Charles Mordaunt. Today the main house is a hotel and the only remaining garden “Fabrique” is the neo classical Bath House designed by Sanderson Miller and today owned by the Landmark Trust. In 1754 Mary Delany was commissioned to decorate the octagonal interior with shell swags and icicle friezes. This water theme was replicated in the Romanesque -style Grotto and plunge pool located beneath the Bath House.

Earl of Coventry. A Capability Brown landscape garden in Worcestershire built in 1751. Grotto at head of lake with Coade statue 1800 of Sabrina, Goddess of the River Severn.

The octagonal boudoir was created (1780's) by Noel Hill, 1st Lord Berwick for his wife Anne Vernon. Her shell cabinet is concealed between Ionic pilasters. Attingham Park is located below Shrewsbury. 

A "Sublime" mid -18th century landscape in Shropshire begun by Sir Rowland Hill. The grotto complex is sited at the top of a steep escarpment complete with Gothic arch and Hermitage.

Grotto features as part of cascade, Oxfordshire. Created by William Kent in 1732 as part of an early naturalistic garden design.

The Duchess of Devonshire designed the rather clumpy grotto in a Capability Brown landscape high beyond the house in the late 1790s.It was originally intended to house the family’s geological collection within its small, locked chamber. The grotto reminds us of Mary Delany’s at Bulstrode. It faces an artificial lake. An open turreted area, serving as a tea-room or bandstand, was added in the early nineteenth century.

Early 18th-century property developed by Sir John Harpur in Derbyshire. An eccentric family the house is noted for its exemplifying decline and clutter. 
The grotto is a subterranean open chamber with pool, minerals and shells. Built in 1809 by Samuel Browne of Derby.

The Derbyshire based garden (1704) is in the French formal style and contains a 'wishing-well' grotto and statuary by Jan Van Nost. The Bird Cage (1711) is by Robert Bakewell.

Sir Roy Strong CH and his wife Julia Trevelyan Oman began creating the Laskett garden, in Hereford, in 1974. It is influenced by formal Italian renaissance garden design. The latest 'fabriques' include a belvedere and a nymphaeum where Apollo is central

1682. The collector Elias Ashmole founded one of the earliest museums in the world. His cabinets of curiosities still form part of the historic collection. 

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