Terraces, Balustraded Bastions, Steps And Boat House

ELLESMERE RURAL C.P. SJ 4034-4134 18/140

OTELEY

Terraces, balustraded bastions, steps and boat house

GV

II

Terraces, balustraded bastions, steps and boat house. Circa 1826 to 1842 for Charles Kynaston Mainwaring. Snecked yellow sandstone with ashlar dressings. Upper and lower terraces, former approximately loom in length and terminating in bastions, latter rather shorter and linked by straight flight of steps roughly at half-way point of upper terrace, continued down to boat house. Upper terrace with ramped parapet has regularly spaced sloping buttresses and a total of four bastions, northern and first from south with projecting balustrades to top. Panelled urn with stepped plinth and base to south bastion. Curious kiln-like structure below approached through chamfered Tudor arches in sides. Various flights of steps down from upper to lower terrace, principal one to centre carried down to boat house with ornamental black and white pebbled paths displaying both guilloche and geometrical patterns. Stone bench to platform above boat house with tourelle to south-west corner. Bank of mere reached by external steps to north side and boat house itself has twin segmental-chamfered arches.

Charles Kynaston Mainwaring was a keen amateur gardener and he travelled extensively on the continent. It is believed that he was personally responsible for much of the design of the garden at Oteley and for the features therein. His house, Oteley Park, built for him in an Elizabethan style on the site of an earlier building between 1826 and 1830 and extended in 1842 was demolished circa 1960. The terraces are magnificently sited above the mere.

This entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 26 October 2016.