Fernery the Grotto is a Grade II* listed building in the Central Bedfordshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 11 October 1973. Grotto, fernery.
Fernery the Grotto
- WRENN ID
- ragged-moulding-ash
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- Central Bedfordshire
- Constituency
- North Bedfordshire MP: Richard Fuller (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 11 October 1973
- Type
- Grotto, fernery
- Address
- Fernery the Grotto, Old Warden
- OS grid reference
- TL 149 447
- Coordinates
- 52.08877, -0.32406
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Grotto and Fernery is a structure built in the early 1830s for the 3rd Lord Ongley, with entrance gables that were rebuilt by the Shuttleworth family and dated 1876. The grotto is constructed of mottled red brick and features clay tile roofs with ridge cresting. The fernery has a base of the same brick and supports a mainly glass and cast iron structure, with the ironwork produced between 1830 and 1833 by Barwell swaggers at Eagle Foundry in Northamptonshire.
The building has a cruciform plan, with the grotto running roughly north-south and the fernery west-east. The grotto features a gabled roof, while the fernery is designed as a vaulted glasshouse, complete with an iron and glass dome at the intersection. Inside, the grotto is lined with tufa stone to create a cave-like appearance and includes a lancet window on the wall of each wing opposite a niche, which may have originally been intended for statuary. The later entrance gables have round-headed archways and glazed doors.
The two wings of the fernery are each supported internally by a pair of slender cast iron pillars and feature a circular stained glass panel in the end wall. The central dome is topped with a lantern that has a conical roof and a ball finial.
Local climate
Fernery 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 96% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 87% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 33 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 56% 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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