The Cascade Building About 80 Metres North East Of Dodington House And Railings

The Cascade Building, located about 80 metres northeast of Dodington House, was designed in 1764 by Capability Brown as part of a picturesque landscape. It is constructed from limestone ashlar and rubble, sandstone, and brick, with cast iron railings, and is designed in the Gothick style.

The north elevation features a central tower with a high pointed arch surrounded by a chamfered frame for the cascade. There are polygonal weathered buttresses with conical caps on either side of the arch, rising from a plinth, along with a cornice and an embattled parapet. At a lower level, there are pointed segmental-headed arched openings on either side of the tower within the connecting curtain wall. Smaller embattled towers flank the central tower, each with a central pointed-arched lancet. The tower on the right is set on a rusticated sandstone plinth, while the parapet wall between the central and flanking towers was missing at the time of the survey in September 1984. A low embattled wall, about 2 metres long, is attached to the right.

The left return of the central tower has a blind 4-centred arched opening, and the right return features a Tudor-arched recess with a pointed arched lancet above, along with buttresses. A small block at the rear of the central tower has 4-centred arched openings on each side, with chamfered heads and rusticated jambs, and cast iron gates to the left, topped with moulded coping.

The lower block supports a serpentine aqueduct made of low coursed limestone rubble walls with coping, leading to a retaining wall that is about one metre high and 3 metres long. This wall has moulded coping, two round openings at the base for water flow, and a plain pier at each end. The small flanking towers contain sluice machinery, with the left return tower featuring a 4-centred arched studded door. Attached to the retaining wall to the east of the aqueduct are railings and gates that are about 6 metres long, with intersecting struts and knob finials. The building was noted to be in poor condition at the time of the survey in September 1984.