The Dark Passage, Joining The Orangery To Lyme Park

The Dark Passage, which connects the Orangery to Lyme Park, was built in 1815 by Lewis Wyatt for Sir Thomas Legh. It features coursed rubble sandstone, with some brick and sandstone slabs used in a later addition. The passage has a curving barrel-vaulted ceiling leading to the kitchen, where the doorcase has a semi-circular rusticated head. Above ground, the passage is illuminated by rebated single-lights separated by iron bars, with wedged and cambered lintels that include false keystones. At the north end, there is a rebated rectangular doorcase that has been reused from the early 19th century. The enclosed store-rooms are lit by ovolo-moulded mullioned transomed windows, and a door with a semi-circular head leads down steps into a game store featuring four brick groined vaults that spring from a central square pillar. The outer wall next to the Orangery is adorned with carved stone urns. Originally, the vaulted room was designed to house a dairy and a circular shell grotto.