Temple Of Flora Approximately 160 Metres North East Of Nuneham House

NUNEHAM COURTENAY NUNEHAM PARK SU5498 12/87 Temple of Flora approx. 160m. NE of Nuneham House

GV II

Garden temple. c.1771. Rendered brick with wooden columns and pediment. Rectangular plan. Greek-Doric style. Open front forms a portico with 2 fluted columns in antis supporting a triglyph frieze and a triangular pediment with mutules. Sides and rear are plain. Interior: rear wall has an oval relief of Flora above a moulded panel containing lines from Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso". The temple formed the architectural focus of the innovatory flower garden designed in 1771 by the Reverend William Masons author of "The English Flower Garden", for Lord Nuneham, afterwards the 2nd Earl Harcourt. The building resembles illustrations in James Stuart's "The Antiqities of Athens" and may have been designed by Stuart who was consulted over Nuneham House (q.v.) and All Saints' Church (q.v.). Nunaham Park is included in the HBMC County Register of Gardens at Grade I; V.C.H.: Oxfordshire, Vol.V, p.234; W. Batey: "Nuneham Courtenay", 1970, p.25; G. Worsley: "Nuneham Park Revisited II", Country Life, Vol.177, p,66).

Listing NGR: SU5421398221