The Grotto is a Grade II listed building in the Bedford local planning authority area, England. First listed on 18 August 1983. A Late C18 House.
The Grotto
- WRENN ID
- secret-doorway-bone
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Bedford
- Constituency
- North Bedfordshire MP: Richard Fuller (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 18 August 1983
- Type
- House
- Address
- The Grotto, Staploe
- OS grid reference
- TL 116 603
- Coordinates
- 52.23009, -0.36679
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Grotto is a house, believed to have served as both an observatory and a gamekeeper's lodge, dating from the late 18th century. It is constructed of red brick and features an old clay tile roof. The building has a small, three-storey tower with a square plan. The south elevation has a casement window on the ground floor, a sash window on the first floor with a cambered head, and a round-headed casement window on the second floor. There are blocked windows with cambered heads on the first floor to the north and south, and on the second floor to the west, north, and front. The structure includes battlemented corner turrets and a pyramid roof. The north wall of the ground floor is part of a former grotto made of flint and rubble. There is a 20th-century lean-to addition on the west side.
Local climate
The Grotto sits in one of the driest parts of the UK, with an average of 690 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 97% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 91% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 34 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 52% of listed buildings. Of these, 15 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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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- 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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