TEMPLE AT NGR ST 2515 3421

The temple, built in 1767 by Thomas Prowse for Sir Charles Halswell, commemorates Peregrine Palmer, MP for the University of Oxford, who died in 1762. It is a pseudo-peripteral temple constructed of ashlar with a slate roof, featuring pedimental end gables and rusticated side walls. The building has an architrave, frieze, and cornice all around, supported by Ionic columns—seven along each side elevation, with five engaged and two free-standing forming the supports for the portico that faces Halswell House. There are four columns across the front of the portico. The architrave door opening has a moulded ledge-hood on brackets, but the double-panelled doors were missing at the time of the last survey in March 1851. Inside, there are remains of a plaster ceiling and an ornamental cornice, along with an aedicule on the rear wall. The stylobate is suffering from damage caused by tree and shrub growth. Country Life, 9 February 1989.