Gazebo/Dovecote in Garden of Bishop Oak is a Grade II* listed building in the County Durham local planning authority area, England. First listed on 31 January 1967. A Georgian Gazebo, dovecote.

Gazebo/Dovecote in Garden of Bishop Oak

WRENN ID
deep-cupola-falcon
Grade
II*
Local Planning Authority
County Durham
Constituency
Bishop Auckland MP: Dr Sam Rushworth (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
31 January 1967
Type
Gazebo, dovecote
Period
Georgian
Address
Gazebo/Dovecote in Garden of Bishop Oak, Leazes Lane, Wolsingham
OS grid reference
NZ 066 391
Coordinates
54.74727, -1.89788
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The gazebo/dovecote in the garden of Bishop Oak dates from the mid-18th century. It features incised stucco with ashlar quoins and dressings, while thinly-coursed rubble is revealed at the rear. The structure has a stone-flagged roof with stone ridges and stands three storeys tall with one bay. The ground floor includes a round arch with voussoirs on impost blocks and stone jambs, with 20th-century glazed doors added, along with side and overlights. The first floor has a renewed 12-pane sash window, and the second floor features a trompe l'oeil window in raised stone surrounds. The pyramidal roof is topped with ridge stone coping resting on moulded kneelers and has a stone obelisk finial with a chevron band. There is a banded chimney at the rear. The left side has an L-plan flight of stone steps leading to a first-floor three-panel door beneath the trompe l'oeil window, while the right side has a first-floor sash window with original wide glazing bars. The rear ground-floor arch is similar to the front. Inside, the ground floor room has stop-chamfered joists, and the first-floor room features a panelled rear wall with a dentilled cornice, a blocked corniced chimneypiece, and panelling to the left of the fire that conceals a ladder to the dovecote above. To the right of the fire, there is a cupboard with shaped shelves. The second floor and attic contain the dovecote with nesting boxes.

Local climate

Gazebo/Dovecote in Garden of Bishop Oak receives an average of 920 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 70% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 71% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 53 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 93% of listed buildings. Of these, 33 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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