Pool, Summer House and Statuary Approximately 60 Metres South of Manor House is a Grade II listed building in the South Oxfordshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 25 October 1984. Garden feature.

Pool, Summer House and Statuary Approximately 60 Metres South of Manor House

WRENN ID
rusted-gravel-fern
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
South Oxfordshire
Constituency
Henley and Thame MP: Freddie van Mierlo (LD)
Country
England
Date first listed
25 October 1984
Type
Garden feature
OS grid reference
SP 582 019
Coordinates
51.71284, -1.15869
Source
Historic England listing

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

Description

A formal pool, summer house, and nine statues dating to around 1920, created for Philip and Lady Ottoline Morrell. The pool is a large, rectangular structure within a dressed limestone basin, featuring a central, rectangular, stone-paved island aligned with the garden (south) axis of the Manor House. The painted wooden summer house, known as The Temple, is located centrally on the east side and has a doorway flanked by small openings set between four simple pilasters, topped by a rustic entablature and triangular pediment. This summer house was brought from the Morrells' former country house at Peppard. Eight full-length standing stone figures are positioned on stone pedestals, set within recesses in a yew hedge around the sides of the pool. A further statue sits on the island. The statues, in clockwise order, depict: a male figure, girdled with a vine and holding a shield-shaped tablet (base inscribed "...VROR POETICUS "); a partly-draped female holding a bee-hive(?); a partly-draped female with a quiver; a partly-draped male (Vulcan) with a hammer and anvil, with one foot replaced; a partly-draped female with detached arms; a nude female holding a branch; a partly draped figure; and a figure on a square pedestal. The island features a reclining female figure on an oval pedestal decorated with festoons and a mask. The pool is the centerpiece of an elaborate Italian garden designed by the Morrells with the assistance of Philip Tylden. The site incorporates a previously existing medieval fishpond. Many artists and writers were frequent visitors during the Morrells' occupancy (1915-28), and some, conscientious objectors, were employed as workmen during the First World War.

Local climate

Pool, Summer House and Statuary Approximately 60 Metres South of Manor House sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 730 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 80% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 72% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 34 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more 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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