Rotunda Temple

The Rotunda Temple is an ornamental temple dated 1746, built for the 2nd Earl of Strafford. Constructed from ashlar sandstone, it features an Ionic peristyle rotunda set on a raised platform. The platform has a moulded plinth and cornice and is accessed by curved steps on the west side, which are flanked by wing walls. The structure is supported by 14 columns that hold up a full entablature adorned with a bay-leaf frieze, mutules, and carved lions' heads on the cornice. The dome has collapsed. At the top of the steps, there is a central cylindrical drum with a blocked doorway, which includes an architrave, bay-leaf frieze, cornice, and decorative festoons and wreaths above. Semi-domed and square-headed niches surround the drum, with an inscription 'S / 1746' within a wreath on the side opposite the steps. The temple was initiated in the early 1740s by Joseph Bower, the estate mason, for the 1st Earl of Strafford, who died in 1739. It is modeled after the temple of Tivoli in Rome.