Eighteenth century shell-encrusted dam disguised as a bridge, formerly the site of a monument to Captain Cook.

Grade I. A dam in the Elysian Fields, disguised as a low bridge. c1740 by Kent. Stone dressings, rendering encrusted with shells. Five bays with low arches, central bay projecting and pedimented, 2 smaller pediments each side above piers. Captain Cook's Monument, standing on the bridge, is a small monument with portrait medallion dated 1778 which was moved to Duck Island in th 1990s.

The National Trust's Survey of Stowe undertaken in 1989 noted that the south front is encrusted with conch shells and that the overflow from the upper lake originally ran through channels in the centre and on either side creating a cascade. The abutments on either side may have supported a wooden footbridge giving views of the fake meander in the Styx and Worthies river.

Source: Buckinghamshire.gov.uk

Edvard

April 29, 2018

The shell bridge is a dam holding back the Grotto Lake made to look like a pedimented bridge when viewed from the south. The south front is rendered and encrusted with conch shells. The overflow from the upper lake originally ran through channels in the centre and from either side creating a pleasant audible cascade. The abutments on either side project southwards and may have supported a wooden footbridge this would have provided excellent views of the fake meander of the Styx or Worthies River. Designed by Kent and built about 1740.

The division of the Alder River from the Worthies River was achieved by means of planting and a dam, for which Kent designed this frontispiece or arcade not unlike the façade of his grotto at Claremont in Surrey. With its shelly decoration it was clearly intended to answer the Grotto further upstream. Early plans, from Sarah Bridgeman’s 1739 publication onwards, show the ground between the bridge and the Alder River planted with trees and shrubs, or ‘Forest Work’, and eighteenth-century engravings confirm that it was intended to form a visual barrier between the two halves of the river. The bridge itself is not in fact the one shown in the engravings but a facsimile constructed in 1879, when the Duke of Buckingham’s steward S. W. Savage reported to his employer: ‘I have ... restored Shell Bridge according to an old drawing I has by me.’ This was probably one of the engravings from Seeley’s guides, but he may have been referring to a design by Kent that had survived in the Estate Office.
heritagerecords.nationaltrust.org.uk/HBSMR/MonRecord.aspx?uid=MNA129905

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Location: Stowe, Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire, South East England, England, United Kingdom

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