Stanway Water Garden

Summary
A lovely baroque gardens surrounding a Cotswold manor house.

The Gardens
Stanway House has been called the perfect Cotswold manor house, but it is the garden that will draw most visitors to this quiet Cotswold village. The restored baroque water garden has some unusual features that make it well worth the visit to Stanway. Perhaps the most striking of these is the pyramid folly, built in 1750 by Robert Tracy in memory of his father, John. In addition, a grand canal gives way to a fountain which jets water up to 300 feet high. Further water features include a cascade, which, at the time of its building, was twice the length of the famous cascade at Chatsworth House. A series of paths link hedged enclosures, creating little garden rooms.

Within the grounds stands a medieval cruck-framed tithe barn, built in 1370 for Tewkesbury Abbey. The thatched cricket pavilion in the grounds was donted by JM Barrie, author of Peter Pan.

The House
Stanway House was built around 1580 on the ruins of an earlier Tudor house. But the history of Stanway goes back still earlier; the Abbey of Tewkesbury owned the manor from the year 715AD. In 1533 the manor was purchased from the Abbey by Richard Tracy, and it was his son Paul who began the present house. The imposing gateway (1630) was the inspiration of Paul's son, Sir Richard Tracy.

The gatehouse is the architectural gem of Stanway House; the triple gabled Jacobean structure (see photo) stands at right angles to the house, perhaps because the proximity of the church did not allow space for a more traditional approach to the house. The house is built in an L pattern, with a fine great hall.