Gardens At Thornbridge Hall

Gardens at Thornbridge Hall

A substantial garden complex comprising walls, steps, terraces, a game larder, garden house, grotto passage and ornaments, constructed in limestone rubble, gritstone and white marble.

The gardens are arranged on two levels to the south and east of the house. The lower south garden is bounded by limestone rubble walls with gritstone copings. At its south-west corner stands an entrance gate with square stone piers topped by ball finials and elaborately scrolled brackets to the sides, with attached winged griffins in 18th-century style. To the east, a retaining wall is decorated with urns. Two flights of steps, with the central flight being a double flight, rise northward from here. The piers at the sides are topped by ball finials, with scroll brackets attached to the south-facing middle piers. Nearby stands a circular Romanesque-style table on a decorated stem with bears at its base.

In the upper south garden to the west, a baldacchino supported on Tuscan columns is topped by a coat of arms within a semi-circular pediment. To the east are a sundial and an Italianate-style stone bench.

The sunken rose garden lies further east, bounded by a balustrade with intermediate square piers topped by ball finials or urns. At its south-east corner stand a pair of gates and a white marble bird bath, with an Italianate stone bench to the west. Balustraded flights of steps at the south-west and north corners lead upward; the northern flight leads to a circular limestone rubble garden house with an asphalt roof featuring wide overhanging eaves and a wide segmental arch on corbels to the south. The garden house has balustered walls and flights of steps to the south, east and north, with intermediate square piers topped by ball finials.

Behind the garden house is a raised paved terrace with low stone panelled walls and large decorated urns, along with an oval pink granite table. This terrace drops northward to the lower eastern terrace.

The lower eastern terrace features a path with pairs of decorated urns to either side. At its north end lies an underground grotto passage constructed of massive boulders. Beyond this, to the north, a retaining wall to the west incorporates a central flight of steps. At the top of these steps stands a massive stone figure of Atlas, approximately nine feet high, supporting a large stone sphere on his shoulders. On either side of the steps below are statues consisting of human torsos mounted on tapering fish-scaled bases.

Adjacent to the house on the paved terrace above the lower eastern terrace stands a high limestone wall to the north, which has inset rusticated gritstone piers topped by urns and busts of classical figures to its eastern side. A Tudor-style gateway to the north leads to the game larder, constructed of limestone rubble with gritstone dressings. The game larder features a small window to the north and a Tudor-style doorcase at an angle to the north with an oculus within a Dutch gable above. An attached lamp post stands to the west, with a stone base carved with lilies and a cast iron pillar topped by a spherical lamp.

Below the lower eastern terrace lies a topiary garden bounded by limestone rubble walls, with alternating shrub boxes, urns and statues to its sides and a central fountain. Entrance piers with decorated urn finials stand to the north and south. Further east in the lakeside garden is a large stone bench with urns to its sides and steps leading up to it, featuring corner ball finials, a central semi-circular pediment and side scrolls to the back.

The upper and lower eastern terraces feature a terrace and flight of stairs that join the rose garden. To the north, the terraces continue via the grotto passage, with the topiary garden lying beneath them. The lakeside garden appears below.

The remainder of the garden is located within the parish of Great Longstone.