Real Tennis Court Remains About 100 Metres North East Of Stowe Barton And Wall To East

The remains of a real tennis court, dating from the late 17th century, are located about 100 metres northeast of Stowe Barton and a wall to the east. This structure is associated with Stowe, which was built for John Grenville, Earl of Bath, in 1679. The court features English bond local brick and some polyphant stones, forming three sides of a rectangular shape that measures 29.3 by 9.8 metres, corresponding to the dimensions of a real tennis court. There is an additional wall, approximately 4 metres from the north wall, which likely served as the inner wall for the side and service penthouses. A sloping slate roof extends across the north and inner wall, now forming part of the present shippon. The south wall has moulded polyphant stones at the base on the inner side, and there are remains of a cement floor. The tennis court is mentioned in Charles Kingsley's book Westward Ho! (1855), which notes that after the demolition of Stowe in 1739, "the stables have become a farmhouse, the tennis-court a sheep-cote."